OpenSSL Security Advisory 20190730 - OpenSSL has internal defaults for a directory tree where it can find a configuration file as well as certificates used for verification in TLS. This directory is most commonly referred to as OPENSSLDIR, and is configurable with the --prefix / --openssldir configuration options.
da7079548b0a5591209ceeed88dc0406ec0810078f33f7b84a7e2cbbe5c9f7be
OpenSSL Security Advisory [30 July 2019]
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Windows builds with insecure path defaults (CVE-2019-1552)
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Severity: Low
OpenSSL has internal defaults for a directory tree where it can find a
configuration file as well as certificates used for verification in
TLS. This directory is most commonly referred to as OPENSSLDIR, and
is configurable with the --prefix / --openssldir configuration options.
For OpenSSL versions 1.1.0 and 1.1.1, the mingw configuration targets
assume that resulting programs and libraries are installed in a
Unix-like environment and the default prefix for program installation
as well as for OPENSSLDIR should be '/usr/local'.
However, mingw programs are Windows programs, and as such, find
themselves looking at sub-directories of 'C:/usr/local', which may be
world writable, which enables untrusted users to modify OpenSSL's
default configuration, insert CA certificates, modify (or even
replace) existing engine modules, etc.
For OpenSSL 1.0.2, '/usr/local/ssl' is used as default for OPENSSLDIR
on all Unix and Windows targets, including Visual C builds. However,
some build instructions for the diverse Windows targets on 1.0.2
encourage you to specify your own --prefix.
OpenSSL versions 1.1.1, 1.1.0 and 1.0.2 are affected by this issue.
Due to the limited scope of affected deployments this has been
assessed as low severity and therefore we are not creating new
releases at this time.
The mitigations are found in these commits:
- For 1.1.1, commit 54aa9d51b09d67e90db443f682cface795f5af9e
- For 1.1.0, commit e32bc855a81a2d48d215c506bdeb4f598045f7e9 and
b15a19c148384e73338aa7c5b12652138e35ed28
- For 1.0.2, commit d333ebaf9c77332754a9d5e111e2f53e1de54fdd
The 1.1.1 and 1.1.0 mitigation set more appropriate defaults for
mingw, while the 1.0.2 mitigation documents the issue and provides
enhanced examples.
This issue was reported by Rich Mirch. The fix was developed by
Richard Levitte from the OpenSSL development team. It was reported to
OpenSSL on 9th Jun 2019.
Note
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OpenSSL 1.0.2 and 1.1.0 are currently only receiving security updates.
Support for 1.0.2 will end on 31st December 2019. Support for 1.1.0
will end on 11th September 2019. Users of these versions should
upgrade to OpenSSL 1.1.1.
References
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URL for this Security Advisory:
https://www.openssl.org/news/secadv/20190730.txt
Note: the online version of the advisory may be updated with additional details
over time.
For details of OpenSSL severity classifications please see:
https://www.openssl.org/policies/secpolicy.html