Dex discarding TLSconfig and always serves deprecated TLS 1.0/1.1 and insecure ciphers

Description

Summary

Dex 2.37.0 is serving HTTPS with insecure TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1.

Details

While working on https://github.com/dexidp/dex/issues/2848 and implementing configurable TLS support, I noticed my changes did not have any effect in TLS config, so I started investigating.

https://github.com/dexidp/dex/blob/70d7a2c7c1bb2646b1a540e49616cbc39622fb83/cmd/dex/serve.go#L425 is seemingly setting TLS 1.2 as minimum version, but the whole tlsConfig is ignored after "TLS cert reloader" was introduced in https://github.com/dexidp/dex/pull/2964. Configured cipher suites are not respected either, as seen on the output.

PoC

Build Dex, generate certs with gencert.sh, modify config.dev.yaml to run on https, using generated certs.

issuer: http://127.0.0.1:5556/dex

storage:
  type: sqlite3
  config:
    file: dex.db

web:
  https: 127.0.0.1:5556
  tlsCert: examples/k8s/ssl/cert.pem
  tlsKey: examples/k8s/ssl/key.pem

<rest as default>

Run dex bin/dex serve config.dev.yaml.

Install sslyze, easy to use SSL connection analyzer:

pip3 install sslyze
sslyze 127.0.0.1:5556

In Dex 2.37.0, TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 are enabled in addition to expected TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3.

 * TLS 1.0 Cipher Suites:
     Attempted to connect using 80 cipher suites.

     The server accepted the following 6 cipher suites:
        TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA                      256                      
        TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA                      128                      
        TLS_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA                     168                      
        TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA                256       ECDH: prime256v1 (256 bits)
        TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA                128       ECDH: prime256v1 (256 bits)
        TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA               168       ECDH: prime256v1 (256 bits)

     The group of cipher suites supported by the server has the following properties:
       Forward Secrecy                    OK - Supported
       Legacy RC4 Algorithm               OK - Not Supported


 * TLS 1.1 Cipher Suites:
     Attempted to connect using 80 cipher suites.

     The server accepted the following 6 cipher suites:
        TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA                      256                      
        TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA                      128                      
        TLS_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA                     168                      
        TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA                256       ECDH: prime256v1 (256 bits)
        TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA                128       ECDH: prime256v1 (256 bits)
        TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA               168       ECDH: prime256v1 (256 bits)

     The group of cipher suites supported by the server has the following properties:
       Forward Secrecy                    OK - Supported
       Legacy RC4 Algorithm               OK - Not Supported


 * TLS 1.2 Cipher Suites:
     Attempted to connect using 156 cipher suites.

     The server accepted the following 11 cipher suites:
        TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384                   256                      
        TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA                      256                      
        TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256                   128                      
        TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA                      128                      
        TLS_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA                     168                      
        TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256       256       ECDH: X25519 (253 bits)
        TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384             256       ECDH: prime256v1 (256 bits)
        TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA                256       ECDH: prime256v1 (256 bits)
        TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256             128       ECDH: prime256v1 (256 bits)
        TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA                128       ECDH: prime256v1 (256 bits)
        TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA               168       ECDH: prime256v1 (256 bits)

     The group of cipher suites supported by the server has the following properties:
       Forward Secrecy                    OK - Supported
       Legacy RC4 Algorithm               OK - Not Supported


 * TLS 1.3 Cipher Suites:
     Attempted to connect using 5 cipher suites.

     The server accepted the following 3 cipher suites:
        TLS_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256                      256       ECDH: X25519 (253 bits)
        TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384                            256       ECDH: X25519 (253 bits)
        TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256                            128       ECDH: X25519 (253 bits)

In Dex 2.36.0, TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 are disabled as expected.

 * TLS 1.0 Cipher Suites:
     Attempted to connect using 80 cipher suites; the server rejected all cipher suites.

 * TLS 1.1 Cipher Suites:
     Attempted to connect using 80 cipher suites; the server rejected all cipher suites.

 * TLS 1.2 Cipher Suites:
     Attempted to connect using 156 cipher suites.

     The server accepted the following 5 cipher suites:
        TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384                   256                      
        TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256                   128                      
        TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256       256       ECDH: X25519 (253 bits)
        TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384             256       ECDH: prime256v1 (256 bits)
        TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256             128       ECDH: prime256v1 (256 bits)

     The group of cipher suites supported by the server has the following properties:
       Forward Secrecy                    OK - Supported
       Legacy RC4 Algorithm               OK - Not Supported


 * TLS 1.3 Cipher Suites:
     Attempted to connect using 5 cipher suites.

     The server accepted the following 3 cipher suites:
        TLS_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256                      256       ECDH: X25519 (253 bits)
        TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384                            256       ECDH: X25519 (253 bits)

Impact

TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 connections can be decrypted by the attacker, and hence decrypt the traffic to Dex.

Basic information

Type
reviewed
Severity
high
Advisory on GitHub
Open advisory ↗
Repository advisory
Open repository advisory ↗
Source code
Browse source ↗
Published (advisory)
2024-01-26 01:57:31 UTC
Updated
2025-05-27 15:45:14 UTC
GitHub reviewed
2024-01-26 01:57:31 UTC
NVD published
2024-01-25

EPSS Score

Score Percentile
0.24% 46.67%

CVSS Scores

Base score Version Severity Vector
7.5 3.1
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
8.7 4.0
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and stable.
Attack requirements (AT:N)
No additional preconditions are required beyond normal reachability.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No privileges are required.
User interaction (UI:N)
No user interaction is required.
Vulnerable system confidentiality impact (VC:H)
High confidentiality impact on the vulnerable system.
Vulnerable system integrity impact (VI:N)
No integrity impact on the vulnerable system.
Vulnerable system availability impact (VA:N)
No availability impact on the vulnerable system.
Subsequent system confidentiality impact (SC:N)
No confidentiality impact on subsequent systems.
Subsequent system integrity impact (SI:N)
No integrity impact on subsequent systems.
Subsequent system availability impact (SA:N)
No availability impact on subsequent systems.

Identifiers

CWEs

CWE id Name
CWE-326 Inadequate Encryption Strength

Credits

  • tuminoid (reporter)

Affected packages (2)

Vulnerable version ranges and first patched releases as published by GitHub.

Ecosystem Package Vulnerable range First patched Vulnerable functions
go github.com/dexidp/dex = 2.37.0 2.38.0
go github.com/dexidp/dex < 0.0.0-20240125115555-5bbdb4420254 0.0.0-20240125115555-5bbdb4420254

References

cvelogic Threat Intelligence