CVE-2023-38201: Keylime Keylime Registrar And (untrusted) Agent Vulnerability
HIGHCVE-2023-38201 is a HIGH (CVSS 6.5) keylime registrar and (untrusted) agent vulnerability (CWE-639: Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key) affecting Keylime libraries in the PyPI ecosystem. The issue involves keylime registrar and (untrusted) agent can be bypassed by an attacker. Remediation is available by upgrading affected packages to version 7.5.0.
CVE-2023-38201 at a Glance
Security Impact
CVSS: 6.5
The security impact metrics below are parsed directly from the CVSS v3.1 vector string (CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N).
How to Fix CVE-2023-38201
To remediate this vulnerability, upgrade all affected Keylime dependencies to a patched release. Both direct and transitive dependencies should be checked, as frameworks or security libraries may pull in vulnerable versions transitively.
pip install keylime>=7.5.0
Run the following command in your project directory to verify that all resolved dependencies use the patched release:
pip show keylime
How to Check if You Are Affected
To determine whether your Python environment is affected by CVE-2023-38201, inspect your installed packages using pip:
pip show keylime
Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Keylime in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than 7.5.0), your application is affected.
Note: The pip show keylime command checks currently installed packages in your active Python environment.
Technical Details
Vulnerability Mechanism & Technical Analysis
This vulnerability is classified under CWE-639: Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key, where the system's authorization functionality does not prevent one user from gaining access to another user's data or record by modifying the key value identifying the data. In Keylime, software state validation or input boundaries are circumvented during processing. Review the official source advisory statement below for specific affected components, classes, and reproduction details.
Source Advisory Statement
CVE-2023-38201 Affected Keylime Versions
1 component(s)| Product / Package | Ecosystem | Affected Versions | Fixed Version |
|---|---|---|---|
|
keylime
|
PyPI |
< 7.5.0
|
7.5.0
|
References
Frequently Asked Questions
What is CVE-2023-38201?
Which Keylime versions are affected?
What version fixes CVE-2023-38201?
Is keylime affected?
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2023-38201?
What CWE is associated with CVE-2023-38201?
How can I check PyPI dependencies for CVE-2023-38201?
Machine-readable OSV JSON
OSV v1.5 Schema
{
"schema_version" : "1.4.0",
"id" : "GHSA-f4r5-q63f-gcww",
"modified" : "2024-09-27T21:25:28Z",
"published" : "2023-09-06T13:49:43Z",
"aliases" : [ "CVE-2023-38201" ],
"summary" : "Keylime registrar and (untrusted) Agent can be bypassed by an attacker",
"details" : "### Impact\n\nA security issue was found in the Keylime `registrar` code which allows an attacker to effectively bypass the challenge-response protocol used to verify that an `agent` has indeed access to an AIK which in indeed related to the EK.\n\nWhen an `agent` starts up, it will contact a `registrar` and provide a public EK and public AIK, in addition to the EK Certificate. This `registrar` will then challenge the `agent` to decrypt a challenge encrypted with the EK. \n\nWhen receiving the wrong \"auth_tag\" back from the `agent` during activation, the `registrar` answers with an error message that contains the expected correct \"auth_tag\" (an HMAC which is calculated within the `registrar` for checking). An attacker could simply record the correct expected \"auth_tag\" from the HTTP error message and perform the activate call again with the correct expected \"auth_tag\" for the `agent`.\n\nThe security issue allows an attacker to pass the challenge-response protocol during registration with (almost) arbitrary registration data. In particular, the attacker can provide a valid EK Certificate and EK, which passes verification by the `tenant` (or `registrar`), while using a compromised AIK, which is stored unprotected outside the TPM and is unrelated to former two. The attacker then deliberately fails the initial activation call to get to know the correct \"auth_tag\" and then provides it in a subsequent activation call. This results in an `agent` which is (incorrectly) registered with a valid EK Certificate, but with a compromised/unrelated AIK.\n\n### Patches\nUsers should upgrade to release 7.5.0",
"severity" : [ {
"type" : "CVSS_V3",
"score" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N"
}, {
"type" : "CVSS_V4",
"score" : "CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N"
} ],
"affected" : [ {
"package" : {
"ecosystem" : "PyPI",
"name" : "keylime"
},
"ranges" : [ {
"type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
"events" : [ {
"introduced" : "0"
}, {
"fixed" : "7.5.0"
} ]
} ]
} ],
"references" : [ {
"type" : "WEB",
"url" : "https://github.com/keylime/keylime/security/advisories/GHSA-f4r5-q63f-gcww"
}, {
"type" : "ADVISORY",
"url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-38201"
}, {
"type" : "WEB",
"url" : "https://github.com/keylime/keylime/commit/9e5ac9f25cd400b16d5969f531cee28290543f2a"
}, {
"type" : "WEB",
"url" : "https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2023:5080"
}, {
"type" : "WEB",
"url" : "https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-38201"
}, {
"type" : "WEB",
"url" : "https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2222693"
}, {
"type" : "PACKAGE",
"url" : "https://github.com/keylime/keylime"
}, {
"type" : "WEB",
"url" : "https://github.com/pypa/advisory-database/tree/main/vulns/keylime/PYSEC-2023-160.yaml"
}, {
"type" : "WEB",
"url" : "https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/ZIZZB5NHNCS5D2AEH3ZAO6OQC72IK7WS"
} ],
"database_specific" : {
"cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-639" ],
"severity" : "HIGH",
"github_reviewed" : true,
"github_reviewed_at" : "2023-09-06T13:49:43Z",
"nvd_published_at" : "2023-08-25T17:15:08Z"
}
}