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

Critical severity GitHub Reviewed Published Oct 22, 2018 to the GitHub Advisory Database • Updated Jan 9, 2023

Package

maven com.typesafe.akka:akka-actor_2.11 (Maven)

Affected versions

>= 2.5.0, < 2.5.16

Patched versions

2.5.16
maven com.typesafe.akka:akka-actor_2.12 (Maven)
>= 2.5.0, < 2.5.16
2.5.16

Description

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.

References

Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Oct 22, 2018
Reviewed Jun 16, 2020
Last updated Jan 9, 2023

Severity

Critical
9.1
/ 10

CVSS base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
None
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

Weaknesses

CVE ID

CVE-2018-16115

GHSA ID

GHSA-mr95-9rr4-668f

Source code

No known source code
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