Vulnerability CVE-2024-31497: Information

Description

In PuTTY 0.68 through 0.80 before 0.81, biased ECDSA nonce generation allows an attacker to recover a user's NIST P-521 secret key via a quick attack in approximately 60 signatures. This is especially important in a scenario where an adversary is able to read messages signed by PuTTY or Pageant. The required set of signed messages may be publicly readable because they are stored in a public Git service that supports use of SSH for commit signing, and the signatures were made by Pageant through an agent-forwarding mechanism. In other words, an adversary may already have enough signature information to compromise a victim's private key, even if there is no further use of vulnerable PuTTY versions. After a key compromise, an adversary may be able to conduct supply-chain attacks on software maintained in Git. A second, independent scenario is that the adversary is an operator of an SSH server to which the victim authenticates (for remote login or file copy), even though this server is not fully trusted by the victim, and the victim uses the same private key for SSH connections to other services operated by other entities. Here, the rogue server operator (who would otherwise have no way to determine the victim's private key) can derive the victim's private key, and then use it for unauthorized access to those other services. If the other services include Git services, then again it may be possible to conduct supply-chain attacks on software maintained in Git. This also affects, for example, FileZilla before 3.67.0, WinSCP before 6.3.3, TortoiseGit before 2.15.0.1, and TortoiseSVN through 1.14.6.

Published: April 15, 2024
Modified: May 1, 2024

Fixed packages

Package name
Branch
Fixed in version
Version from repository
Errata ID
Task #
State
puttysisyphus0.81-alt10.81-alt1ALT-PU-2024-6830-1345428Fixed
puttysisyphus_e2k0.81-alt10.81-alt1ALT-PU-2024-6884-1-Fixed
puttysisyphus_loongarch640.81-alt10.81-alt1ALT-PU-2024-6895-1-Fixed

References to Advisories, Solutions, and Tools

Hyperlink
Resource
https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/changes.html
    https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/wishlist/vuln-p521-bias.html
      https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/04/15/6
        https://filezilla-project.org/versions.php
          https://tartarus.org/~simon/putty-snapshots/htmldoc/Chapter9.html#pageant-forward
            https://docs.ccv.brown.edu/oscar/connecting-to-oscar/ssh/ssh-agent-forwarding/key-generation-and-agent-forwarding-with-putty
              https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40044665
                https://winscp.net/eng/news.php
                  https://tortoisegit.org
                    https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-6p4c-r453-8743
                      https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2275183
                        https://bugzilla.suse.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1222864
                          https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2024-31497
                            https://twitter.com/lambdafu/status/1779969509522133272
                              https://git.tartarus.org/?h=c193fe9848f50a88a4089aac647fecc31ae96d27&p=simon/putty.git
                                https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/1c4wmoj/putty_vulnerability_affecting_v068_to_v08/
                                  https://github.com/daedalus/BreakingECDSAwithLLL
                                    https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/putty-ssh-client-flaw-allows-recovery-of-cryptographic-private-keys/
                                      https://twitter.com/CCBalert/status/1780229237569470549
                                        https://securityonline.info/cve-2024-31497-critical-putty-vulnerability-exposes-private-keys-immediate-action-required/
                                          FEDORA-2024-8401d42de6
                                            FEDORA-2024-ff9a2fb31c
                                              FEDORA-2024-0489e7ba1e
                                                FEDORA-2024-08a4a5ead8
                                                  FEDORA-2024-cba85cc558
                                                    [oss-security] 20240415 CVE-2024-31497: Secret Key Recovery of NIST P-521 Private Keys Through Biased ECDSA Nonces in PuTTY Client