CVE-2019-16905
Description
A Denial of service flaw was found in the way OpenSSH parsed certain specially crafted XMSS (eXtended Merkle Signature Scheme) private keys. Any OpenSSH functionality which parses private keys is vulnerable, for example:
- If ‘sshd’ daemon is configured to use an XMSS host key that is malformed, it will crash upon any attempt to connect to this server.
- If 'authorized_keys' is configured to use an XMSS public key, and the private key is used to connect to the server, the ssh client used for the connection will crash.
- Adding a crafted XMSS key to ssh-agent, will cause the ssh-agent to crash.
- Hosting services which allow users to upload keys may be affected. Malicious keys will cause the flaw to be triggered when the key is parsed. (Note: upload alone is not enough, the key needs to be parsed to cause the crash)
Statement
The versions of OpenSSH package shipped with Red Hat products, do not enable support for XMSS and therefore are not affected by this flaw.
Mitigation
This flaw is triggered when parsing XMSS private keys. XMSS is a PQC (Post-quantum cryptography) algorithm and its use is currently experimental. Other key types or any other OpenSSH functionality are not affected by this flaw. A possible mitigation for this flaw is to NOT use XMSS keys for SSH.
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).
The following CVSS metrics and score provided are preliminary and subject to review.
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 8.8 | 7.8 | N/A |
| Attack Vector | Network | Local | N/A |
| Attack Complexity | Low | Low | N/A |
| Privileges Required | None | Low | N/A |
| User Interaction | Required | None | N/A |
| Scope | Unchanged | Unchanged | N/A |
| Confidentiality | High | High | N/A |
| Integrity Impact | High | High | N/A |
| Availability Impact | High | High | N/A |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart; DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory); DoS: Instability
This weakness can generally lead to undefined behavior and therefore crashes. When the calculated result is used for resource allocation, this weakness can cause too many (or too few) resources to be allocated, possibly enabling crashes if the product requests more resources than can be provided.
Integrity
Technical Impact: Modify Memory
If the value in question is important to data (as opposed to flow), simple data corruption has occurred. Also, if the overflow/wraparound results in other conditions such as buffer overflows, further memory corruption may occur.
Confidentiality,Availability,Access Control
Technical Impact: Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands; Bypass Protection Mechanism
This weakness can sometimes trigger buffer overflows, which can be used to execute arbitrary code. This is usually outside the scope of the product's implicit security policy.
Availability,Other
Technical Impact: Alter Execution Logic; DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart; DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU)
If the overflow/wraparound occurs in a loop index variable, this could cause the loop to terminate at the wrong time - too early, too late, or not at all (i.e., infinite loops). With too many iterations, some loops could consume too many resources such as memory, file handles, etc., possibly leading to a crash or other DoS.
Access Control
Technical Impact: Bypass Protection Mechanism
If integer values are used in security-critical decisions, such as calculating quotas or allocation limits, integer overflows can be used to cause an incorrect security decision.
Frequently Asked Questions
Not sure what something means? Check out our Security Glossary.
Want to get errata notifications? Sign up here.
