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

CVE-2018-16115 → View on GitHub ↗ View on CVE.org ↗ View on NVD ↗

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.

Basic information

Type
reviewed
Severity
critical
Advisory on GitHub
Open advisory ↗
Repository advisory
—
Source code
Not specified
Published (advisory)
2018-10-22 20:44:26 UTC
Updated
2023-01-09 05:03:31 UTC
GitHub reviewed
2020-06-16 21:47:05 UTC

EPSS Score

Score Percentile
0.35% 57.05%

CVSS Scores

Base score Version Severity Vector
9.1 3.0 —
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.

Identifiers

Type Value
GHSA GHSA-mr95-9rr4-668f ↗
CVE CVE-2018-16115 ↗

CWEs

CWE id Name
CWE-338 Use of Cryptographically Weak Pseudo-Random Number Generator (PRNG)

Affected packages (2)

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

Ecosystem Package Vulnerable range First patched Vulnerable functions
maven com.typesafe.akka:akka-actor_2.11 >= 2.5.0, < 2.5.16 2.5.16 —
maven com.typesafe.akka:akka-actor_2.12 >= 2.5.0, < 2.5.16 2.5.16 —

References

cvelogic Threat Intelligence