CVE-2016-2513
Description
A timing attack flaw was found in the way Django's PBKDF2PasswordHasher performed password hashing. Passwords hashed with an older version of PBKDF2PasswordHasher used less hashing iterations, and thus allowed an attacker to enumerate existing users based on the time differences in the login requests.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
CVSS v2 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 4.3 | 2.6 | N/A |
| Attack Vector | Network | Network | N/A |
| Access Complexity | Medium | High | N/A |
| Authentication | None | None | N/A |
| Confidentiality Impact | Partial | Partial | N/A |
| Integrity Impact | None | None | N/A |
| Availability Impact | None | None | N/A |
Vector
Red Hat: AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N
NVD: AV:N/AC:H/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Confidentiality,Other
Technical Impact: Read Application Data; Other
In some instances, knowing when data is transmitted between parties can provide a malicious user with privileged information. Also, externally monitoring the timing of operations can potentially reveal sensitive data. For example, a cryptographic operation can expose its internal state if the time it takes to perform the operation varies, based on the state.
Acknowledgements
Red Hat would like to thank the Django project for reporting this issue.
Frequently Asked Questions
Not sure what something means? Check out our Security Glossary.
Want to get errata notifications? Sign up here.
