CVE-2023-38201: Keylime Keylime Registrar And (untrusted) Agent Vulnerability

HIGH
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-f4r5-q63f-gcww
CVSS 6.5
CWE-639
Published
Advisory Summary

CVE-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

CVE Identifier CVE-2023-38201
GHSA Identifier GHSA-f4r5-q63f-gcww
Severity HIGH
CVSS v3.1 Base Score 6.5
CWE Classification CWE-639: Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key
Affected Product Keylime
Package Ecosystem PyPI
Published Date
Last Updated

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).

Attack Vector Adjacent (AV:A)
Attack Complexity Low (AC:L)
Privileges Required None (PR:N)
User Interaction None (UI:N)
Scope Unchanged (S:U)
Confidentiality None (C:N)
Integrity High (I:H)
Availability None (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.

keylime fixed: 7.5.0
pip install keylime>=7.5.0
Verify Direct and Transitive Dependencies

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

### Impact A 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. When 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. When 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`. The 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. ### Patches Users should upgrade to release 7.5.0

CVE-2023-38201 Affected Keylime Versions

1 component(s)
Fixed Versions:
7.5.0
Product / Package Ecosystem Affected Versions Fixed Version
keylime
PyPI
< 7.5.0
7.5.0

References

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2023-38201?
CVE-2023-38201 is a security vulnerability in Keylime involving Keylime registrar and (untrusted) Agent can be bypassed by an attacker under CWE-639: Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key.
Which Keylime versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to 7.5.0 across affected packages: keylime.
What version fixes CVE-2023-38201?
Upgrading to 7.5.0 (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
Is keylime affected?
Yes, keylime is affected in releases prior to 7.5.0. Upgrade your dependency to 7.5.0 or later.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2023-38201?
CVE-2023-38201 has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 6.5 (HIGH) with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2023-38201?
CVE-2023-38201 is classified under CWE-639: Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key (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.).
How can I check PyPI dependencies for CVE-2023-38201?
Run the dependency tree command: 'pip show keylime'. This command lists direct and transitive dependencies in your build configuration so you can verify if a vulnerable version is resolved.
Machine-readable OSV JSON OSV v1.5 Schema
Normalized schema output
{
  "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"
  }
}