Botan up to 2.8.x ECC Key Generation key management

CVSS Meta Temp Score
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CTI Interest Score
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5.6$0-$5k0.00

A vulnerability was found in Botan up to 2.8.x. It has been rated as critical. Affected by this issue is some unknown processing of the component ECC Key Generation. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a key management vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-320. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

A side-channel issue was discovered in Botan before 2.9.0. An attacker capable of precisely measuring the time taken for ECC key generation may be able to derive information about the high bits of the secret key, as the function to derive the public point from the secret scalar uses an unblinded Montgomery ladder whose loop iteration count depends on the bitlength of the secret. This issue affects only key generation, not ECDSA signatures or ECDH key agreement.

The bug was discovered 12/17/2018. The weakness was published 03/08/2019. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2018-20187 since 12/17/2018. The exploitation is known to be difficult. The attack may be launched remotely. No form of authentication is required for exploitation. There are neither technical details nor an exploit publicly available. The MITRE ATT&CK project declares the attack technique as T1600.001.

The vulnerability was handled as a non-public zero-day exploit for at least 41 days. During that time the estimated underground price was around $0-$5k. The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 121407 (FreeBSD : botan2 -- Side channel during ECC key generation (d8e7e854-17fa-11e9-bef6-6805ca2fa271)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment. It is assigned to the family FreeBSD Local Security Checks and running in the context l.

Upgrading to version 2.9.0 eliminates this vulnerability. A possible mitigation has been published even before and not after the disclosure of the vulnerability.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at Tenable (121407).

Productinfo

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License

CPE 2.3info

CPE 2.2info

CVSSv4info

VulDB CVSS-B Score: 🔍
VulDB CVSS-BT Score: 🔍
VulDB Vector: 🔍
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv3info

VulDB Meta Base Score: 5.7
VulDB Meta Temp Score: 5.6

VulDB Base Score: 5.6
VulDB Temp Score: 5.4
VulDB Vector: 🔍
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

NVD Base Score: 5.9
NVD Vector: 🔍

CVSSv2info

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VulDB Base Score: 🔍
VulDB Temp Score: 🔍
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

NVD Base Score: 🔍

Exploitinginfo

Class: Key management
CWE: CWE-320
CAPEC: 🔍
ATT&CK: 🔍

Local: No
Remote: Yes

Availability: 🔍
Status: Not defined

EPSS Score: 🔍
EPSS Percentile: 🔍

Price Prediction: 🔍
Current Price Estimation: 🔍

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Nessus ID: 121407
Nessus Name: FreeBSD : botan2 -- Side channel during ECC key generation (d8e7e854-17fa-11e9-bef6-6805ca2fa271)
Nessus File: 🔍
Nessus Risk: 🔍
Nessus Family: 🔍
Nessus Context: 🔍

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Interest: 🔍
Active Actors: 🔍
Active APT Groups: 🔍

Countermeasuresinfo

Recommended: Upgrade
Status: 🔍

0-Day Time: 🔍

Upgrade: Botan 2.9.0

Timelineinfo

12/17/2018 🔍
12/17/2018 +0 days 🔍
01/27/2019 +41 days 🔍
01/28/2019 +1 days 🔍
03/08/2019 +39 days 🔍
03/09/2019 +1 days 🔍
07/29/2023 +1603 days 🔍

Sourcesinfo

Advisory: botan.randombit.net
Status: Not defined

CVE: CVE-2018-20187 (🔍)

Entryinfo

Created: 03/09/2019 07:27
Updated: 07/29/2023 15:36
Changes: 03/09/2019 07:27 (63), 05/14/2020 18:45 (1), 07/29/2023 15:36 (4)
Complete: 🔍

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