Security

OpenSSL is affected by a ‘High Severity’ security flaw, update it now

The OpenSSL Project disclosed a serious security vulnerability in TLS/SSL toolkit that exposes users to denial-of-service (DoS) attacks.

The OpenSSL Project warned of a ‘high-severity’ security vulnerability in the TLS/SSL toolkit that exposes users to denial-of-service (DoS) attacks.

The flaw is a null pointer dereference, successful exploitation could trigger denial-of-service conditions. The vulnerability was reported by Google researcher David Benjamin.

“The X.509 GeneralName type is a generic type for representing different types of names. One of those name types is known as EDIPartyName. OpenSSL provides a function GENERAL_NAME_cmp which compares different instances of a GENERAL_NAME to see if they are equal or not.” reads the alert published by OpenSSL Project. “This function behaves incorrectly when both GENERAL_NAMEs contain an EDIPARTYNAME. A NULL pointer dereference and a crash may occur leading to a possible denial of service attack.”

The flaw stems from the GENERAL_NAME_cmp function which compares different instances of a GENERAL_NAME using in X.509 certificates.

The GENERAL_NAME_cmp function is used for the following purposes:

1) Comparing CRL distribution point names between an available CRL and a CRL distribution point embedded in an X509 certificate

2) When verifying that a timestamp response token signer matches the timestamp authority name (exposed via the API functions TS_RESP_verify_response and TS_RESP_verify_token)

An attacker could trigger a clash by controlling both items being compared, this is possible, for example, if the attacker can trick a client or server into checking a malicious certificate against a malicious CRL. 

The flaw affects all OpenSSL 1.1.1 and 1.0.2 versions, users are urged to upgrade to OpenSSL 1.1.1i. 

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, DoS)

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Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.

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