Note: This is an archival copy of Security Sun Alert 201293 as previously published on http://sunsolve.sun.com.
Latest version of this security advisory is available from http://support.oracle.com as Sun Alert 1000975.1.
Article ID : 1000975.1
Article Type : Sun Alerts (SURE)
Last reviewed : 2007-02-14
Audience : PUBLIC
Copyright Notice: Copyright © 2010, Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates.

Security Vulnerability in RSA Signature Verification Affects Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition



Category
Security

Release Phase
Resolved

Product
Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition

Bug Id
6466389, 6469538

Date of Workaround Release
15-NOV-2006

Date of Resolved Release
15-FEB-2007

Impact

The Java Runtime Environment and the Java Secure Socket Extension may verify incorrect RSA PKCS #1 v1.5 signatures if the RSA public key exponent is 3. This may allow applets or applications that are signed by forged signing certificates and web sites with forged web server certificates to be verified as valid.

For information about this general issue, see:

Note: The issue described in this Sun Alert is specific to the Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition. Multiple Sun products are affected by this issue; for more details please see Sun Alert 102648


Contributing Factors

The issue can occur in the following releases (for Windows, Solaris, and Linux):

  • JDK and JRE 5.0 Update 8 and earlier
  • SDK and JRE 1.4.2_12 and earlier
  • JDK and JRE 1.3.1_19 and earlier
  • Java Secure Socket Extension(JSSE) 1.0.3_03 and earlier

To determine the default version of the JRE on a system for Solaris and Linux, the following command can be used:

    % java -version

Note: The above command only determines the default version. Other versions may also be installed on the system.

To determine the default version of the JRE on a system for Windows:

  1. Click "Start"
  2. Select "Run"
  3. Type "cmd" (starts a command-line)
  4. At the prompt, type "java -version"

Note: The above command only determines the default version. Other versions may also be installed on the system.

To determine the version of JSSE 1.0.3_xx that is installed, first locate the "jsse.jar" file. If the JSSE was installed as an "Installed Extension", the jsse.jar will be found in <java-home>/lib/ext/jsse.jar. If JSSE was installed as a "Bundled Extension", search the application to determine the location of jsse.jar.

Once the jsse.jar has been located, extract the MANIFEST.MF file using the jar(1) command, for example:

    % jar -xvf jsse.jar META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
    inflated: META-INF/MANIFEST.MF

The implementation version number can then be obtained from the MANIFEST.MF file using a command similar to the following:

    % grep Implementation-Version META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
    Implementation-Version: 1.0.3_04

Note: JSSE 1.0.3_xx should not be installed with JRE 1.4.x or later.


Symptoms

There are no reliable symptoms that would indicate the described issue has been exploited.


Workaround

There is no workaround. Please see Resolution section below.


Resolution

This issue is addressed in the following releases (for Windows, Solaris, and Linux):

  • JDK and JRE 5.0 Update 9 or later
  • SDK and JRE 1.4.2_13 or later
  • JSSE 1.0.3_04 or later
  • SDK and JRE 1.3.1_20

J2SE 1.4.2 is available for download at:

J2SE 5.0 is available for download at the following links:

J2SE 5.0 Update 9 for Solaris is available in the following patches:

  • J2SE 5.0: update 9 (as delivered in patch 118666-09)
  • J2SE 5.0: update 9 (as delivered in patch 118667-09 (64bit))
  • J2SE 5.0_x86: update 9 (as delivered in patch 118668-09)
  • J2SE 5.0_x86: update 9 (as delivered in patch 118669-09 (64bit))

JSSE 1.0.3_04 is available at:

J2SE 1.3.1 is available for download at:

Note: When installing a new version of the product from a source other than a Solaris patch, it is recommended that the old affected versions be removed from your system. For more information, please see the installation notes on the respective java.sun.com download pages.



Modification History
Date: 15-FEB-2007
  • State: Resolved
  • Updated Resolution section


References

118666-09
118667-09
118668-09
118669-09




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