ipsec-tools contains an X.509 certificates vulnerability.

Security Team Contact Address

Updated April 07, 2004

1. Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

Advisory Reference	GLSA 200404-05 / ipsec-tools
Release Date	April 07, 2004
Latest Revision	April 07, 2004: 01
Impact	high
Exploitable	remote

Package	Vulnerable versions	Unaffected versions	Architecture(s)
net-firewall/ipsec-tools	<= 0.2.4	>= 0.2.5	AMD64

Related bugreports: #47013

Synopsis

ipsec-tools contains a vulnerability that affects connections authenticated with X.509 certificates.

2. Impact Information

Background

From http://ipsec-tools.sourceforge.net/ :

"IPsec-Tools is a port of KAME's IPsec utilities to the Linux-2.6 IPsec implementation."

Description

racoon (a utility in the ipsec-tools package) does not verify digital signatures on Phase1 packets. This means that anybody holding the correct X.509 certificate would be able to establish a connection, even if they did not have the corresponding private key.

Impact

Since digital signatures are not verified by the racoon tool, an attacker may be able to connect to the VPN gateway and/or execute a man-in-the-middle attack.

3. Resolution Information

Workaround

A workaround is not currently known for this issue. All users are advised to upgrade to the latest version of the affected package.

Resolution

ipsec-tools users should upgrade to version 0.2.5 or later:

Code Listing 3.1: Resolution

# emerge sync

# emerge -pv ">=net-firewall/ipsec-tools-0.2.5"
# emerge ">=net-firewall/ipsec-tools-0.2.5"