[Full-Disclosure] NetBSD Security Advisory 2003-006: Cryptographic weaknesses in Kerberos v4 protocol

From: NetBSD Security Officer (security-officer@netbsd.org)
Date: 04/04/03

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    From: NetBSD Security Officer <security-officer@netbsd.org>
    To: full-disclosure@lists.netsys.com
    Date: Fri, 4 Apr 2003 11:45:11 -0500
    

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                     NetBSD Security Advisory 2003-006
                     =================================

    Topic: Cryptographic weaknesses in Kerberos v4 protocol

    Version: NetBSD-current: source prior to March 20, 2003
                    NetBSD 1.6: affected
                    NetBSD-1.5.3: affected
                    NetBSD-1.5.2: affected
                    NetBSD-1.5.1: affected
                    NetBSD-1.5: affected
                    pkgsrc: prior to kth-krb4-1.2.1 or heimdal-0.5.1

    Severity: Every user on a Kerberos 4 network can be compromised

    Fixed: NetBSD-current: March 20, 2003
                    NetBSD-1.6 branch: March 22, 2003 (1.6.1 will include the fix)
                    NetBSD-1.5 branch: April 1, 2003
                    pkgsrc: kth-krb4-1.2.2, heimdal-0.5.2

    Abstract
    ========

    A cryptographic weakness in version 4 of the Kerberos protocol allows
    an attacker to use a chosen-plaintext attack to impersonate any
    principal in a realm. This attack subverts a site's entire Kerberos
    authentication infrastructure.

    Kerberos version 5 does not contain this cryptographic vulnerability.

    Sites are not vulnerable if they have Kerberos v4 completely disabled,
    including the disabling of any krb5 to krb4 translation services.

    Technical Details
    =================

    An attacker controlling a krb4 shared cross-realm key can
    impersonate any principal in the remote realm to any service in the
    remote realm. This can lead to a root-level compromise of a KDC,
    along with compromise of any hosts that rely on authentication
    provided by that KDC.

    This attack may be performed against cross-realm principals, thus
    allowing an attacker to hop realms and compromise any realm that
    transitively shares a cross-realm key with the attacker's local
    realm.

    Related, but more difficult attacks may be possible without
    requiring the control of a shared cross-realm key. At the very
    least, an attacker capable of creating arbitrary principal names in
    the target realm may be able to perform the attack.

    A leak has occurred of an unpublished paper containing enough
    details about the vulnerability that an attacker familiar with the
    krb4 protocol can easily construct an exploit. No exploit is known
    to be circulating at this time, though.

    These are PROTOCOL vulnerabilities; fixes inherently involve
    restricting the functionality of the protocol.

    The fixes are required for the KDC machine - patches are not needed
    on the clients, if v4 is disabled on the server.

    Solutions and Workarounds
    =========================

    If you can't upgrade to a newer version, make sure you disable all
    cross-realm functionality, remove or randomize the cross-realm key.

    You can use ``kinit --version'' do determine if you have a vulnerable system

    current:

            kinit (Heimdal 0.5nb2, KTH-KRB 1.2)
            Copyright (c) 1999-2002 Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan
            Send bug-reports to heimdal-bugs@pdc.kth.se

            is secure/safe.

    The following instructions describe how to upgrade your affected
    binaries by updating your source tree and rebuilding and
    installing a new version of Heimdal.

    * NetBSD-current:

            Systems running NetBSD-current dated from before 2003-03-20
            should be upgraded to NetBSD-current dated 2003-03-21 or later.

            The following directories need to be updated from the
            netbsd-current CVS branch (aka HEAD):
                    crypto/dist/heimdal/kdc
                    include/heimdal

            To update from CVS, re-build, and re-install your KDC binaries.
                    # cd src
                    # cvs update -d -P crypto/dist/heimdal/kdc include/heimdal
                    # cd crypto/dist/heimdal/kdc

                    # make USETOOLS=no cleandir dependall
                    # make USETOOLS=no install

    * NetBSD 1.6:

            The binary distribution of NetBSD 1.6 is vulnerable.

            Systems running NetBSD 1.6 sources dated from before
            2003-03-22 should be upgraded from NetBSD 1.6 sources dated
            2003-03-23 or later.

            NetBSD 1.6.1 will include the fix.

            The following directories need to be updated from the
            netbsd-1-6 CVS branch:
                    crypto/dist/heimdal/kdc
                    include/heimdal

            To update from CVS, re-build, and re-install your KDC binaries.

                    # cd src
                    # cvs update -d -P -r netbsd-1-6 crypto/dist/heimdal/kdc \
                            include/heimdal
                    # cd crypto/dist/heimdal/kdc

                    # make USETOOLS=no cleandir dependall
                    # make USETOOLS=no install

    * NetBSD 1.5, 1.5.1, 1.5.2, 1.5.3:

            The binary distribution of NetBSD 1.5.3 is vulnerable.

            Systems running NetBSD 1.5, 1.5.1, 1.5.2, or 1.5.3 sources dated
            from before 2003-03-31 should be upgraded from NetBSD 1.5.*
            sources dated 2003-04-01 or later.

            The following directories need to be updated from the
            netbsd-1-5 CVS branch:
                    crypto/dist/heimdal/kdc
                    include/heimdal

            To update from CVS, re-build, and re-install your KDC binaries.

                    # cd src
                    # cvs update -d -P -r netbsd-1-5 crypto/dist/heimdal/kdc \
                            include/heimdal
                    # cd crypto/dist/heimdal/kdc

                    # make cleandir dependall
                    # make install

    Thanks To
    =========

    Sam Hartman and Tom Yu for notifying us in the first place and
    providing text for the advisory.

    Steve Bellovin provided some hints that led MIT people to discover
    this vulnerability.

    Love Hornquist-Astrand for coordination of information exchange.

    Revision History
    ================

            2003-04-04 Initial release

    More Information
    ================

    Advisories may be updated as new information becomes available.
    The most recent version of this advisory (PGP signed) can be found at
      ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/security/advisories/NetBSD-SA2003-006.txt.asc

    Information about NetBSD and NetBSD security can be found at
    http://www.NetBSD.ORG/ and http://www.NetBSD.ORG/Security/.

    Copyright 2003, The NetBSD Foundation, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    Redistribution permitted only in full, unmodified form.

    $NetBSD: NetBSD-SA2003-006.txt,v 1.6 2003/04/04 06:12:17 wiz Exp $

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    Relevant Pages

    • NetBSD Security Advisory 2003-006: Cryptographic weaknesses in Kerberos v4 protocol
      ... A cryptographic weakness in version 4 of the Kerberos protocol allows ... principal in a realm. ... An attacker controlling a krb4 shared cross-realm key can ... This attack may be performed against cross-realm principals, ...
      (Bugtraq)
    • [Full-Disclosure] GLSA: openafs (200303-26)
      ... "A cryptographic weakness in version 4 of the Kerberos protocol allows an ... An attacker that knows a shared cross-realm key ... between any remote realm and the local realm can impersonate any principal in ... the local realm to AFS database servers and file servers in the local cell, ...
      (Full-Disclosure)
    • GLSA: openafs (200303-26)
      ... "A cryptographic weakness in version 4 of the Kerberos protocol allows an ... An attacker that knows a shared cross-realm key ... between any remote realm and the local realm can impersonate any principal in ... the local realm to AFS database servers and file servers in the local cell, ...
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    • Re: Where do the random numbers come from?
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