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CERT Coordination Center

OpenSSL servers contain a buffer overflow during the SSL2 handshake process

Vulnerability Note VU#102795

Original Release Date: 2002-07-30 | Last Revised: 2002-09-30

Overview

OpenSSL is an open-source implementation of the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol. A remotely exploitable vulnerability exists in OpenSSL servers that could lead to the execution of arbitrary code on the server.

Description

Versions of OpenSSL servers prior to 0.9.6e and pre-release version 0.9.7-beta2 contain a remotely exploitable buffer overflow vulnerability. This vulnerability can be exploited by a client using a malformed key during the handshake process with an SSL server connection using the SSLv2 communication process.

Impact

Exploitation of this vulnerability could lead to the execution of arbitrary code on the server. The code will be executed with the privileges of the application or service exploited via this vulnerability.

Solution

OpenSSL servers should apply the patches provided by your vendors, or upgrade to OpenSSL 0.9.6e. Note that applications statically linking to OpenSSL libraries may need to be recompiled with the corrected version of OpenSSL.

Servers can disable SSL2 or disable all applications using SSL or TLS until the patches are applied.

Vendor Information

102795
 

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References

Acknowledgements

The CERT/CC thanks Greg Shipley of Neohapsis for reporting this issue to us. John McDonald is credited for discovering this issue. It was also found independently by A.L. Digital Ltd.

This document was written by Jason A Rafail.

Other Information

CVE IDs: CVE-2002-0656
CERT Advisory: CA-2002-23
Severity Metric: 17.63
Date Public: 2002-07-30
Date First Published: 2002-07-30
Date Last Updated: 2002-09-30 20:51 UTC
Document Revision: 38

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