CVE-2023-6129

Issue summary: The POLY1305 MAC (message authentication code) implementation contains a bug that might corrupt the internal state of applications running on PowerPC CPU based platforms if the CPU provides vector instructions. Impact summary: If an attacker can influence whether the POLY1305 MAC algorithm is used, the application state might be corrupted with various application dependent consequences. The POLY1305 MAC (message authentication code) implementation in OpenSSL for PowerPC CPUs restores the contents of vector registers in a different order than they are saved. Thus the contents of some of these vector registers are corrupted when returning to the caller. The vulnerable code is used only on newer PowerPC processors supporting the PowerISA 2.07 instructions. The consequences of this kind of internal application state corruption can be various - from no consequences, if the calling application does not depend on the contents of non-volatile XMM registers at all, to the worst consequences, where the attacker could get complete control of the application process. However unless the compiler uses the vector registers for storing pointers, the most likely consequence, if any, would be an incorrect result of some application dependent calculations or a crash leading to a denial of service. The POLY1305 MAC algorithm is most frequently used as part of the CHACHA20-POLY1305 AEAD (authenticated encryption with associated data) algorithm. The most common usage of this AEAD cipher is with TLS protocol versions 1.2 and 1.3. If this cipher is enabled on the server a malicious client can influence whether this AEAD cipher is used. This implies that TLS server applications using OpenSSL can be potentially impacted. However we are currently not aware of any concrete application that would be affected by this issue therefore we consider this a Low severity security issue.

Read the notes from the security team

Why is this CVE low priority?

Considered low severity by upstream OpenSSL project

Learn more about Ubuntu priority

Status

Show unmaintained releases

Package	Ubuntu Release	Status
edk2	24.10 oracular	Vulnerable
	24.04 LTS noble	Vulnerable
	23.10 mantic	Not affected
	23.04 lunar	Not affected
	22.04 LTS jammy	Not affected
	20.04 LTS focal	Not affected
	18.04 LTS bionic	Not affected
	16.04 LTS xenial	Not affected
	14.04 LTS trusty	Ignored end of standard support
nodejs	24.10 oracular	Not affected
	24.04 LTS noble	Not affected
	23.10 mantic	Not affected
	23.04 lunar	Not affected
	22.04 LTS jammy	Vulnerable
	20.04 LTS focal	Not affected
	18.04 LTS bionic	Needs evaluation
	16.04 LTS xenial	Needs evaluation
	14.04 LTS trusty	Not affected
openssl	24.10 oracular	Fixed 3.0.10-1ubuntu4
	24.04 LTS noble	Fixed 3.0.10-1ubuntu4
	23.10 mantic	Fixed 3.0.10-1ubuntu2.2
	23.04 lunar	Ignored end of life, was needed
	22.04 LTS jammy	Fixed 3.0.2-0ubuntu1.14
	20.04 LTS focal	Not affected
	18.04 LTS bionic	Not affected
	16.04 LTS xenial	Not affected
	14.04 LTS trusty	Not affected
openssl1.0	24.10 oracular	Not in release
	24.04 LTS noble	Not in release
	23.10 mantic	Not in release
	23.04 lunar	Not in release
	22.04 LTS jammy	Not in release
	20.04 LTS focal	Not in release
	18.04 LTS bionic	Not affected
	16.04 LTS xenial	Not in release
	14.04 LTS trusty	Not in release

Notes

mdeslaur

only affects 3.x only affects ppc64el

Patch details

For informational purposes only. We recommend not to cherry-pick updates. How can I get the fixes?

Package	Patch details
openssl	Upstream: https://git.openssl.org/?p=openssl.git;a=commit;h=050d26383d4e264966fb83428e72d5d48f402d35

Severity score breakdown

Parameter	Value
Base score	6.5 · Medium
Attack vector	Network
Attack complexity	High
Privileges required	None
User interaction	None
Scope	Unchanged
Confidentiality	None
Integrity impact	Low
Availability impact	High
Vector	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:H

References

Related Ubuntu Security Notices (USN)

USN-6622-1
OpenSSL vulnerabilities
5 February 2024

Cvss 3 Severity Score