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SuSE-SA:2003:048: gpg

medium Nessus Plugin ID 13816

Synopsis

The remote host is missing a vendor-supplied security patch

Description

The remote host is missing the patch for the advisory SuSE-SA:2003:048 (gpg).


The gnupg (the SUSE package is named gpg) package is the most widely used software for cryptographic encryption/decryption of data.

Two independent errors have been found in gpg (GnuPG) packages as shipped with SUSE products:

A) A format string error in the client code that does key retrieval from a (public) key server B) A cryptographic error in gpg that results in a compromise of a cryptographic keypair if ElGamal signing keys have been used for generating the key.


A) There exists a format string error in thhe client code for key retrieval from a keyserver. gpg-1.2.x version packages are affected by this vulnerability.
The format string error can be used by an attacker performing a man-in-the-middle-attack between you and your keyserver, or by a compromised keyserver. The result is a crash of gpg or a potential execution of arbitrary code provided by the attacker, if the keyserver is used for key retrieval at the time of the attack.

B) Werner Koch, the author of the gpg package, has publicly announced a weakness in gpg that has been reported to him by Phong Nguyen: ElGamal signing keys can be attacked within seconds to reveal the private key of the keypair. It is strongly advised that ElGamal signing keys should be revoked immediately. Only ElGamal keys are affected, other types are not vulnerable.

To find out if you are using an ElGamal signing key, list your public keys using the command

gpg --list-keys your_keyid

Example:
$ gpg --list-keys [email protected] pub 1024D/9C800ACA 2000-10-19 SuSE Package Signing Key <[email protected]> sub 2048g/8495160C 2000-10-19 [expires: 2006-02-12] $

If your key lists a capital 'G' after the key's length (like in pub 1536G/...), then your key is vulnerable. A small letter 'g' after the key length does NOT indicate any problem.
ElGamal keys can be used for primary keys as well as for subkeys. In the case where only a subkey is an ElGamal key, it is sufficient to revoke this specific subkey.

To revoke a key, generate a revocation certificate using the following command:

gpg --gen-revoke your_keyid > revocation_certificate.pgp

Then, the revokation certificate must be imported into your keyring:

gpg --import < revocation_certificate.pgp

As your last action, send the key with its revocation certificate to the keyservers that know your key:

gpg --keyserver wwwkeys.eu.pgp.net --send-keys your_keyid


ElGamal keys can only be generated by gpg if a special option (--expert) has been used to reveal 'expert' options, and if a warning has been ignored after your choice to use ElGamal keys. Such keys are rare (Werner Koch reports 848 primary ElGamal signing keys and 324 vulnerable subkeys on the keyservers.). Therefore, we expect that only experienced users of gpg may be vulnerable to the ElGamal signing key error.

Solution

http://www.suse.de/security/2003_048_gpg.html

Plugin Details

Severity: Medium

ID: 13816

File Name: suse_SA_2003_048.nasl

Version: 1.16

Agent: unix

Published: 7/25/2004

Updated: 1/14/2021

Supported Sensors: Continuous Assessment, Nessus Agent, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Low

Score: 2.2

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 5

Temporal Score: 4.1

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N

Vulnerability Information

Required KB Items: Host/SuSE/rpm-list

Exploit Available: true

Exploit Ease: Exploits are available

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2003-0971

BID: 9115