Vulnerabilities > CVE-2008-3188 - Use of a Broken or Risky Cryptographic Algorithm vulnerability in Opensuse 11.0
Attack vector
NETWORK Attack complexity
LOW Privileges required
NONE Confidentiality impact
HIGH Integrity impact
NONE Availability impact
NONE Summary
libxcrypt in SUSE openSUSE 11.0 uses the DES algorithm when the configuration specifies the MD5 algorithm, which makes it easier for attackers to conduct brute-force attacks against hashed passwords.
Vulnerable Configurations
| Part | Description | Count |
|---|---|---|
| OS | 1 |
Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE)
Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)
- Encryption Brute Forcing An attacker, armed with the cipher text and the encryption algorithm used, performs an exhaustive (brute force) search on the key space to determine the key that decrypts the cipher text to obtain the plaintext.
- Creating a Rogue Certificate Authority Certificate An attacker exploits a weakness in the MD5 hash algorithm (weak collision resistance) to generate a certificate signing request (CSR) that contains collision blocks in the "to be signed" part. The attacker specially crafts two different, but valid X.509 certificates that when hashed with the MD5 algorithm would yield the same value. The attacker then sends the CSR for one of the certificates to the Certification Authority which uses the MD5 hashing algorithm. That request is completely valid and the Certificate Authority issues an X.509 certificate to the attacker which is signed with its private key. An attacker then takes that signed blob and inserts it into another X.509 certificate that the attacker generated. Due to the MD5 collision, both certificates, though different, hash to the same value and so the signed blob works just as well in the second certificate. The net effect is that the attackers' second X.509 certificate, which the Certification Authority has never seen, is now signed and validated by that Certification Authority. To make the attack more interesting, the second certificate could be not just a regular certificate, but rather itself a signing certificate. Thus the attacker is able to start their own Certification Authority that is anchored in its root of trust in the legitimate Certification Authority that has signed the attackers' first X.509 certificate. If the original Certificate Authority was accepted by default by browsers, so will now the Certificate Authority set up by the attacker and of course any certificates that it signs. So the attacker is now able to generate any SSL certificates to impersonate any web server, and the user's browser will not issue any warning to the victim. This can be used to compromise HTTPS communications and other types of systems where PKI and X.509 certificates may be used (e.g., VPN, IPSec) .
- Signature Spoof An attacker generates a message or datablock that causes the recipient to believe that the message or datablock was generated and cryptographically signed by an authoritative or reputable source, misleading a victim or victim operating system into performing malicious actions.
- Cryptanalysis Cryptanalysis is a process of finding weaknesses in cryptographic algorithms and using these weaknesses to decipher the ciphertext without knowing the secret key (instance deduction). Sometimes the weakness is not in the cryptographic algorithm itself, but rather in how it is applied that makes cryptanalysis successful. An attacker may have other goals as well, such as: 1. Total Break - Finding the secret key 2. Global Deduction - Finding a functionally equivalent algorithm for encryption and decryption that does not require knowledge of the secret key. 3. Information Deduction - Gaining some information about plaintexts or ciphertexts that was not previously known 4. Distinguishing Algorithm - The attacker has the ability to distinguish the output of the encryption (ciphertext) from a random permutation of bits The goal of the attacker performing cryptanalysis will depend on the specific needs of the attacker in a given attack context. In most cases, if cryptanalysis is successful at all, an attacker will not be able to go past being able to deduce some information about the plaintext (goal 3). However, that may be sufficient for an attacker, depending on the context.
Nessus
| NASL family | SuSE Local Security Checks |
| NASL id | SUSE_11_0_LIBXCRYPT-080717.NASL |
| description | libxcrypt accidentally used the DES-Algorithm if MD5 was selected as password hash algorithm (CVE-2008-3188). |
| last seen | 2020-06-01 |
| modified | 2020-06-02 |
| plugin id | 40054 |
| published | 2009-07-21 |
| reporter | This script is Copyright (C) 2009-2019 Tenable Network Security, Inc. |
| source | https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/40054 |
| title | openSUSE Security Update : libxcrypt (libxcrypt-109) |
| code | |
Seebug
| bulletinFamily | exploit |
| description | BUGTRAQ ID: 30301 CVE(CAN) ID: CVE-2008-3188 openSUSE是一个易于安装SUSE Linux操作系统版本。 openSUSE使用libxcrypt库计算口令的哈希值，可以配置为使用DES、MD5或blowfish。由于libxcrypt库中的一个漏洞，即使/etc/default/passwd文件中已经配置了MD5，系统仍会忽略这个设置使用DES算法。相对较弱的算法可能有助于攻击者的暴力破解。 S.u.S.E. openSUSE 11.0 S.u.S.E. -------- 目前厂商已经发布了升级补丁以修复这个安全问题，请到厂商的主页下载： <a href=http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2008-07/msg00008.html target=_blank>http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2008-07/msg00008.html</a> |
| id | SSV:3697 |
| last seen | 2017-11-19 |
| modified | 2008-07-23 |
| published | 2008-07-23 |
| reporter | Root |
| title | openSUSE libxcrypt不安全口令哈希漏洞 |
References
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2008-07/msg00008.html
- http://secunia.com/advisories/31096
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2008-08/msg00001.html
- http://secunia.com/advisories/31339
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/30301
- https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/43927