Information disclosure in InsideSecure MatrixSSL

1) Information disclosure

EUVDB-ID: #VU13400

Risk: Low

CVSSv3.1: 5.1 [CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N/E:U/RL:U/RC:C]

CVE-ID: CVE-2018-12439

CWE-ID: CWE-200 - Information exposure

Exploit availability: No

Description

The vulnerability allows a local attacker to obtain potentially sensitive information.

The vulnerability exists in the MatrixSSL library due to a leakage of information through memory caches when the library uses a private key to create Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) signatures as demonstrayed in the dsa/dsa.cpp, ec_group/ec_group.cpp, and ecdsa/ecdsa.cpp source code files. A local attacker can conduct a memory-cache side-channel attack and recover sensitive information, such ECDSA private keys, which could be used to conduct further attacks.

Mitigation

Cybersecurity Help is currently unaware of any solutions addressing the vulnerability.

Vulnerable software versions

MatrixSSL: 1.8.1 - 3.9.5

External links

http://www.nccgroup.trust/us/our-research/technical-advisory-return-of-the-hidden-number-problem/

Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

No. This vulnerability can be exploited locally. The attacker should have authentication credentials and successfully authenticate on the system.

How the attacker can exploit this vulnerability?

The attacker would have to send a specially crafted request to the affected application in order to exploit this vulnerability.

The attacker would have to login to the system and perform certain actions in order to exploit this vulnerability.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.