9.1crit

CVE-2018-16115

Cryptographically Weak Pseudo-Random Number Generator (PRNG) in akka-actor

Also known as GHSA-mr95-9rr4-668f

Published 8 y ago · modified 4 mo ago · JSON

CVSS
9.1
v3.0 · NVD
CISA KEV
No
not known exploited
EPSS
1.2%
percentile 68%
Public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Lightbend Akka 2.5.x before 2.5.16 allows message disclosure and modification because of an RNG error. A random number generator is used in Akka Remoting for TLS (both classic and Artery Remoting). Akka allows configuration of custom random number generators. For historical reasons, Akka included the AES128CounterSecureRNG and AES256CounterSecureRNG random number generators. The implementations had a bug that caused the generated numbers to be repeated after only a few bytes. The custom RNG implementations were not configured by default but examples in the documentation showed (and therefore implicitly recommended) using the custom ones. This can be used by an attacker to compromise the communication if these random number generators are enabled in configuration. It would be possible to eavesdrop, replay, or modify the messages sent with Akka Remoting/Cluster.

Exploit prediction (EPSS)

1.19% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 68% of all scored CVEs.

CVSS scores

Assigned byVersionScoreVector
NVD3.09.1CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
NVD2.06.4AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:N
GitHub3.09.1CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

Affected packages

EcosystemPackageAffectedFixed in
mavencom.typesafe.akka:akka-actor_2.11
>=2.5.0, <2.5.16
2.5.16
mavencom.typesafe.akka:akka-actor_2.12
>=2.5.0, <2.5.16
2.5.16

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-338 Use of Cryptographically Weak Pseudo-Random Number Generator (PRNG)

References

  • doc.akka.io /docs/akka/current/security/2018-08-29-aes-rng.html · x_refsource_MISC, x_transferred
  • nvd.nist.gov /vuln/detail/CVE-2018-16115 · advisory
  • github.com /advisories/GHSA-mr95-9rr4-668f · advisory

Sources

vulnwire keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA; records that alias each other are merged. Machine-readable: JSON.