Overview
About vulnerability
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
lib/crypto: chacha: Zeroize permuted_state before it leaves scope
Since the ChaCha permutation is invertible, the local variable ‘permuted_state’ is sufficient to compute the original ‘state’, and thus the key, even after the permutation has been done.
While the kernel is quite inconsistent about zeroizing secrets on the stack (and some prominent userspace crypto libraries don’t bother at all since it’s not guaranteed to work anyway), the kernel does try to do it as a best practice, especially in cases involving the RNG.
Thus, explicitly zeroize ‘permuted_state’ before it goes out of scope.
Details
- Affected product:
- AlmaLinux 9.2 ESU , Amazon Linux 2 ELS , CentOS 8.4 ELS , CentOS 8.5 ELS , CentOS Stream 8 ELS , Debian 10 ELS , Oracle Linux 7 ELS , TuxCare 9.6 ESU , Ubuntu 16.04 ELS , Ubuntu 18.04 ELS , Ubuntu 20.04 ELS
- Affected packages:
- kernel @ 5.14.0 (+12 more)
Fixes
KernelCare state
Live-patch status from KernelCare for each operating system.
| Operating system | Status | Covered kernels |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon Linux 2023 | Planned | — |
| Debian 11 | Released |
37 kernels
|
| Debian 11 cloud | Released |
17 kernels
|
| Debian 13 | Planned | — |
| Ubuntu 22.04 | Planned | — |
| Ubuntu 24.04 | Planned | — |