Bug Id
6602801

Product
Solaris 10 Operating System

Date of Resolved Release
03-Dec-2008

A Security Vulnerability in the OpenSSL PKCS#11 Engine May Result in Denial of Service (DoS) Due to a Corrupted Session Cache

1. Impact

A security vulnerability in the OpenSSL PKCS#11 engine as shipped with Solaris 10 may affect applications which make use of this engine. The exact impact will vary depending on the application. This vulnerabiltiy may allow a local or remote unprivileged user to cause certain cryptographic operations within the application to fail (namely RSA_sign and RSA_verify), which is a type of Denial of Service (DoS).

For example, if the OpenSSL PKCS#11 engine is used for SSL processing (for example, in the Apache webserver) it will result in SSL connections being dropped in the SSL handshake phase, thereby causing a Denial Of Service (DoS) due to a corrupted session cache.

2. Contributing Factors

This issue can occur in the following releases:

SPARC Platform

• Solaris 10 without patch 139459-01
  

x86 Platform

• Solaris 10 without patch 138863-02
  

Notes:

1. Solaris 8 and 9 and OpenSolaris are not impacted by this issue since they do not ship with the OpenSSL PKCS#11 engine.

2. This issue only impacts applications making use of the OpenSSL PKCS#11 engine. The exact method for determining whether an application is making use of this functionality will vary depending on the application.

3. Symptoms

The symptoms will vary depending on the application. For example, if the OpenSSL PKCS#11 engine is used for SSL processing, failed SSL handshakes may be observed as in the following example (from the Apache debug log file):

[Thu Sep 06 08:28:05 2008] [info] [client 192.0.2.1] 
SSL library error 1 in handshake (server ssl-server.example.com:443)
[Thu Sep 06 08:28:05 2008] [info] SSL Library Error: 
336105650 error:140890B2:SSL routines:SSL3_GET_CLIENT_CERTIFICATE:no certificate returned
[Thu Sep 06 08:28:05 2008] [info] SSL Library Error: 
2148044919 error:80089077:lib(128):PK11_DESTROY_OBJECT:C_DestroyObject failed
[Thu Sep 06 08:28:05 2008] [info] [client 192.0.2.1] 
Connection closed to child 126 with abortive shutdown (server ssl-server.example.com:443)

4. Workaround

Until patches can be applied, sites may wish to disable the OpenSSL PKCS#11 engine altogether or just for RSA/DSA/DH functions (if possible) so that crypto processing will be done only via native OpenSSL routines. This may degrade the performance depending on how the engine is used and on the hardware crypto providers present in the system.

The method for doing this will vary depending on the application, and the documentation should be consulted for more details. For example, to disable the OpenSSL PKCS#11 engine in the Apache web server (see apache(1M)), comment out the following line from the SSL configuration file and restart the Webserver:


For Apache server shipped with Solaris 10, this directive is configured in '/etc/apache/httpd.conf' or '/etc/apache2/ssl.conf'.

5. Resolution

This issue is addressed in the following releases:

SPARC Platform

• Solaris 10 with patch 139459-01 or later
  

x86 Platform

• Solaris 10 with patch 138863-02 or later
  

For more information on Security Sun Alerts, see 1009886.1.

This Sun Alert notification is being provided to you on an "AS IS" basis. This Sun Alert notification may contain information provided by third parties. The issues described in this Sun Alert notification may or may not impact your system(s). Sun makes no representations, warranties, or guarantees as to the information contained herein. ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT, ARE HEREBY DISCLAIMED. BY ACCESSING THIS DOCUMENT YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT SUN SHALL IN NO EVENT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES THAT ARISE OUT OF YOUR USE OR FAILURE TO USE THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN. This Sun Alert notification contains Sun proprietary and confidential information. It is being provided to you pursuant to the provisions of your agreement to purchase services from Sun, or, if you do not have such an agreement, the Sun.com Terms of Use. This Sun Alert notification may only be used for the purposes contemplated by these agreements.

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References

139459-01
138863-02





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