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CVE-2021-3521

Description

There is a flaw in RPM's signature functionality. OpenPGP subkeys are associated with a primary key via a "binding signature."[1] RPM does not check the binding signature of subkeys prior to importing them. If an attacker is able to add or socially engineer another party to add a malicious subkey to a legitimate public key, RPM could wrongly trust a malicious signature. The greatest impact of this flaw is to data integrity.

  1. https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4880#section-5.2.1

Statement

To exploit this flaw, an attacker must either compromise an RPM repository or convince an administrator to install an untrusted RPM or public key. It is strongly recommended to only use RPMs and public keys from trusted sources.

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 v3 Score Breakdown

Red HatNVDcve.org
Base Score4.44.7N/A
Attack VectorLocalLocalN/A
Attack ComplexityHighHighN/A
Privileges RequiredLowNoneN/A
User InteractionRequiredRequiredN/A
ScopeUnchangedUnchangedN/A
ConfidentialityNoneNoneN/A
Integrity ImpactHighHighN/A
Availability ImpactNoneNoneN/A

Vector

Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

NVD: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

Acknowledgements

Red Hat would like to thank Demi M. Obenour for reporting this issue.

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