Overview
Das U-Boot is a device bootloader that can read its configuration from an AES encrypted file. For devices utilizing this environment encryption mode, U-Boot's use of a zero initialization vector and improper handling of an error condition may allow attacks against the underlying cryptographic implementation and allow an attacker to decrypt the data.
Description
CWE-329: Not Using a Random IV with CBC Mode - CVE-2017-3225 Das U-Boot's AES-CBC encryption feature uses a zero (0) initialization vector. This allows an attacker to perform dictionary attacks on encrypted data produced by Das U-Boot to learn information about the encrypted data.
Devices that make use of Das U-Boot's AES-CBC encryption feature using environment encryption (i.e., setting the configuration parameter CONFIG_ENV_AES=y) read environment variables from disk as the encrypted disk image is processed. An attacker with physical access to the device can manipulate the encrypted environment data to include a crafted two-byte sequence which triggers an error in environment variable parsing. This error condition is improperly handled by Das U-Boot, resulting in an immediate process termination with a debugging message. The immediate failure can be used as an oracle for a Vaudenay-style timing attack on the cryptography, allowing a dedicated attacker to decrypt and potentially modify the contents of the device. |
Impact
An attacker with physical access to the device may be able to decrypt the device's contents. |
Solution
The CERT/CC is currently unaware of a practical solution to this problem. U-Boot versions prior to 2017.09 contain the vulnerable code; the feature was deprecated and removed in the 2017.09 release. |
Vendor Information
CVSS Metrics
| Group | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|
| Base | 5.6 | AV:L/AC:H/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:N |
| Temporal | 5 | E:POC/RL:U/RC:C |
| Environmental | 3.8 | CDP:ND/TD:M/CR:ND/IR:ND/AR:ND |
References
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Allan Xavier for reporting this vulnerability.
This document was written by Garret Wassermann.
Other Information
| CVE IDs: | CVE-2017-3225, CVE-2017-3226 |
| Date Public: | 2017-09-08 |
| Date First Published: | 2017-09-08 |
| Date Last Updated: | 2017-10-12 12:52 UTC |
| Document Revision: | 55 |