NetBSD Security Advisory 2003-006: Cryptographic weaknesses in Kerberos v4 protocol

From: NetBSD Security Officer (security-officerat_private)
Date: Fri Apr 04 2003 - 08:44:41 PST

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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    A leak has occurred of an unpublished paper containing enough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-bugsat_private
    
    	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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