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Mustafa Al-Bassam [ARCHIVE] /
npub1uer…2z6z
2023-06-07 18:11:33
in reply to nevent1q…vm3p

Mustafa Al-Bassam [ARCHIVE] on Nostr: 📅 Original date posted:2018-04-09 📝 Original message:The original disclosure ...

📅 Original date posted:2018-04-09
📝 Original message:The original disclosure didn't contain any information about the library
in question, so I did some digging.

I think that the vulnerability disclosure is referring to a pre-2013
version of jsbn, a JavaScript crypto library. Before it used the CSRNG
in the Web Crypto API, it tried to use nsIDOMCrypto, but incorrectly did
a string comparison when checking the browser version.

In practice though, this doesn't really matter, because
navigator.appVersion < "5" returns true anyway for old browsers. The
real issue is that modern browsers don't have window.crypto.random
defined, so Bitcoin wallets using a pre-2013 version of jsbn may not be
using a CSPRNG, when run on a modern browser.

As is noted though, even if a CSPRNG is used, the library passes the
output of the CSPRNG through RC4, which generates some biased bits,
leading to possible private key recovery.


On 09/04/18 22:17, Mustafa Al-Bassam via bitcoin-dev wrote:
>
> And specifically, here's a version of it that uses Arcfour:
> https://gist.github.com/jonls/5230850
>
>
> On 09/04/18 22:11, Mustafa Al-Bassam wrote:
>>
>> Here's the code in question: https://github.com/jasondavies/jsbn/pull/7
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Mustafa
>>
>>
>> On 06/04/18 21:51, Matias Alejo Garcia via bitcoin-dev wrote:
>>> Source?
>>>
>>> On Fri, Apr 6, 2018 at 4:53 PM, ketamine--- via bitcoin-dev
>>> <bitcoin-dev at lists.linuxfoundation.org
>>> <mailto:bitcoin-dev at lists.linuxfoundation.org>> wrote:
>>>
>>> A significant number of past and current cryptocurrency products
>>> contain a JavaScript class named SecureRandom(), containing both
>>> entropy collection and a PRNG. The entropy collection and the RNG
>>> itself are both deficient to the degree that key material can be
>>> recovered by a third party with medium complexity. There are a
>>> substantial number of variations of this SecureRandom() class in
>>> various pieces of software, some with bugs fixed, some with
>>> additional
>>> bugs added. Products that aren't today vulnerable due to moving to
>>> other libraries may be using old keys that have been previously
>>> compromised by usage of SecureRandom().
>>>
>>>
>>> The most common variations of the library attempts to collect
>>> entropy
>>> from window.crypto's CSPRNG, but due to a type error in a comparison
>>> this function is silently stepped over without failing. Entropy is
>>> subsequently gathered from math.Random (a 48bit linear congruential
>>> generator, seeded by the time in some browsers), and a single
>>> execution of a medium resolution timer. In some known configurations
>>> this system has substantially less than 48 bits of entropy.
>>>
>>> The core of the RNG is an implementation of RC4 ("arcfour random"),
>>> and the output is often directly used for the creation of
>>> private key
>>> material as well as cryptographic nonces for ECDSA signatures.
>>> RC4 is
>>> publicly known to have biases of several bits, which are likely
>>> sufficient for a lattice solver to recover a ECDSA private key
>>> given a
>>> number of signatures. One popular Bitcoin web wallet re-initialized
>>> the RC4 state for every signature which makes the biases
>>> bit-aligned,
>>> but in other cases the Special K would be manifest itself over
>>> multiple transactions.
>>>
>>>
>>> Necessary action:
>>>
>>> * identify and move all funds stored using SecureRandom()
>>>
>>> * rotate all key material generated by, or has come into contact
>>> with any piece of software using SecureRandom()
>>>
>>> * do not write cryptographic tools in non-type safe languages
>>>
>>> * don't take the output of a CSPRNG and pass it through RC4
>>>
>>> -
>>> 3CJ99vSipFi9z11UdbdZWfNKjywJnY8sT8
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> bitcoin-dev mailing list
>>> bitcoin-dev at lists.linuxfoundation.org
>>> <mailto:bitcoin-dev at lists.linuxfoundation.org>
>>> https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/bitcoin-dev
>>> <https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/bitcoin-dev>;
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Matías Alejo Garcia
>>> @ematiu
>>> Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads!
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> bitcoin-dev mailing list
>>> bitcoin-dev at lists.linuxfoundation.org
>>> https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/bitcoin-dev
>>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> bitcoin-dev mailing list
> bitcoin-dev at lists.linuxfoundation.org
> https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/bitcoin-dev

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