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OpenAdvisories
Unscored CVE-2021-4160 EUVD-2021-34028GHSA-ph2x-8239-7xc7

BN_mod_exp may produce incorrect results on MIPS

Published Jan 28, 2022 · Updated Sep 16, 2024 · Assigned by openssl

Description

There is a carry propagation bug in the MIPS32 and MIPS64 squaring procedure. Many EC algorithms are affected, including some of the TLS 1.3 default curves. Impact was not analyzed in detail, because the pre-requisites for attack are considered unlikely and include reusing private keys. Analysis suggests that attacks against RSA and DSA as a result of this defect would be very difficult to perform and are not believed likely. Attacks against DH are considered just feasible (although very difficult) because most of the work necessary to deduce information about a private key may be performed offline. The amount of resources required for such an attack would be significant. However, for an attack on TLS to be meaningful, the server would have to share the DH private key among multiple clients, which is no longer an option since CVE-2016-0701. This issue affects OpenSSL versions 1.0.2, 1.1.1 and 3.0.0. It was addressed in the releases of 1.1.1m and 3.0.1 on the 15th of December 2021. For the 1.0.2 release it is addressed in git commit 6fc1aaaf3 that is available to premium support customers only. It will be made available in 1.0.2zc when it is released. The issue only affects OpenSSL on MIPS platforms. Fixed in OpenSSL 3.0.1 (Affected 3.0.0). Fixed in OpenSSL 1.1.1m (Affected 1.1.1-1.1.1l). Fixed in OpenSSL 1.0.2zc-dev (Affected 1.0.2-1.0.2zb).

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
OpenSSL OpenSSL Fixed in OpenSSL 3.0.1 (Affected 3.0.0), Fixed in OpenSSL 1.1.1m (Affected 1.1.1-1.1.1l), Fixed in OpenSSL 1.0.2zc-dev (Affected 1.0.2-1.0.2zb) —

Fixed in Linux distributions

Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian 14 openssl 1.1.1m-1 —
Debian 13 openssl 1.1.1m-1 —
Debian 12 openssl 1.1.1m-1 —
Debian 11 openssl 1.1.1k-1+deb11u2 DSA-5103-1
Debian 10 openssl 1.1.1d-0+deb10u8 DSA-5103-1
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS edk2 No fix yet —

Azure Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Azure Linux 2 (CBL-Mariner) openssl 1.1.1k-13 —

Advisories 6

References