CVE-2018-6459
The rsa_pss_params_parse function in libstrongswan/credentials/keys/signature_params.c in...
The rsa_pss_params_parse function in libstrongswan/credentials/keys/signature_params.c in strongSwan 5.6.1 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service via a crafted RSASSA-PSS signature that lacks a mask generation function parameter.
Attack profile
How easy it is to exploit
- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges needed
- None
- User interaction
- None
What an attacker can affect
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- Low
Exploit likelihood
What each source reports
NVD Score used
5.3
The rsa_pss_params_parse function in libstrongswan/credentials/keys/signature_params.c in strongSwan 5.6.1 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service via a crafted RSASSA-PSS signature that lacks a mask generation function parameter.
- Record
CVE-2018-6459- CVSS 3.0
- 5.3 Medium
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L - CVSS 2.0
- 5.0 Medium
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P - Weakness
- CWE-347
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
CVE List No score
The rsa_pss_params_parse function in libstrongswan/credentials/keys/signature_params.c in strongSwan 5.6.1 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service via a crafted RSASSA-PSS signature that lacks a mask generation function parameter.
- Record
CVE-2018-6459- Updated
- 2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2018-18216 No score
The rsa_pss_params_parse function in libstrongswan/credentials/keys/signature_params.c in strongSwan 5.6.1 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service via a crafted RSASSA-PSS signature that lacks a mask generation function parameter.
- Record
EUVD-2018-18216- Updated
- 2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-66xj-v6xw-92v4
5.3
The rsa_pss_params_parse function in libstrongswan/credentials/keys/signature_params.c in...
The rsa_pss_params_parse function in libstrongswan/credentials/keys/signature_params.c in strongSwan 5.6.1 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service via a crafted RSASSA-PSS signature that lacks a mask generation function parameter.
- Record
GHSA-66xj-v6xw-92v4- CVSS 3.0
- 5.3 Medium
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L - Weakness
- CWE-347
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSV
5.3
The rsa_pss_params_parse function in libstrongswan/credentials/keys/signature_params.c in strongSwan 5.6.1 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service via a crafted RSASSA-PSS signature that lacks a mask generation function parameter.
- Record
CVE-2018-6459- CVSS 3.0
- 5.3 Medium
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L - Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVDEBIAN-CVE-2018-6459
5.3
The rsa_pss_params_parse function in libstrongswan/credentials/keys/signature_params.c in strongSwan 5.6.1 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service via a crafted RSASSA-PSS signature that lacks a mask generation function parameter.
- Record
DEBIAN-CVE-2018-6459- CVSS 3.0
- 5.3 Medium
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L - Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVopenSUSE-SU-2020:0403-1 No score
Security update for strongswan
This update for strongswan fixes the following issues:
Strongswan was updated to version 5.8.2 (jsc#SLE-11370).
Security issue fixed:
- CVE-2018-6459: Fixed a DoS vulnerability in the parser for PKCS#1 RSASSA-PSS signatures that was caused by insufficient input validation (bsc#1079548).
Full changelogs:
Version 5.8.2
- Identity-based CA constraints, which enforce that the certificate chain of the remote peer contains a CA certificate with a specific identity, are supported via vici/swanctl.conf. This is similar to the existing CA constraints but doesn't require that the CA certificate is locally installed, for instance, intermediate CA certificates received from the peers. Wildcard identity matching (e.g. ..., OU=Research, CN=*) could also be used for the latter but requires trust in the intermediate CAs to only issue certificates with legitimate subject DNs (e.g. the 'Sales' CA must not issue certificates with OU=Research). With the new constraint that's not necessary as long as a path length basic constraint (--pathlen for pki --issue) prevents intermediate CAs from issuing further intermediate CAs.
- Intermediate CA certificates may now be sent in hash-and-URL encoding by configuring a base URL for the parent CA (#3234, swanctl/rw-hash-and-url-multi-level).
- Implemented NIST SP-800-90A Deterministic Random Bit Generator (DRBG) based on AES-CTR and SHA2-HMAC modes. Currently used by the gmp and ntru plugins.
- Random nonces sent in an OCSP requests are now expected in the corresponding OCSP responses.
- The kernel-netlink plugin now ignores deprecated IPv6 addresses for MOBIKE. Whether temporary or permanent IPv6 addresses are included now depends on the charon.prefer_temporary_addrs setting (#3192).
- Extended Sequence Numbers (ESN) are configured via PF_KEY if supported by the kernel.
- The PF_KEY socket's receive buffer in the kernel-pfkey plugin is now cleared before sending requests, as many of the messages sent by the kernel are sent as broadcasts to all PF_KEY sockets. This is an issue if an external tool is used to manage SAs/policies unrelated to IPsec (#3225).
- The vici plugin now uses unique section names for CHILD_SAs in child-updown events (7c74ce9190).
- For individually deleted CHILD_SAs (in particular for IKEv1) the vici child-updown event now includes more information about the CHILD_SAs such as traffic statistics (#3198).
- Custom loggers are correctly re-registered if log levels are changed via stroke loglevel (#3182).
- Avoid lockups during startup on low entropy systems when using OpenSSL 1.1.1 (095a2c2eac).
- Instead of failing later when setting a key, creating HMACs via openssl plugin now fails instantly if the underlying hash algorithm isn't supported (e.g. MD5 in FIPS-mode) so fallbacks to other plugins work properly (#3284).
- Exponents of RSA keys read from TPM 2.0 via SAPI are correctly converted (8ee1242f1438).
- Routing table IDs > 255 are supported for custom routes on Linux.
- To avoid races, the check for hardware offloading support in the kernel-netlink plugin is performed during initialization of the plugin (a605452c03).
- The D-Bus config file for charon-nm is now installed in $(datadir)/dbus-1/system.d instead of $(sysconfdir)/dbus-1/system.d, which is intended for sysadmin overrides. INVALID_MAJOR_VERSION notifies are now correctly sent in messages of the same exchange type and with the same message ID as the request.
- IKEv2 SAs are now immediately destroyed when sending or receiving INVALID_SYNTAX notifies in authenticated messages.
- For developers working from the repository the configure script now aborts if GNU gperf is not found.
Version 5.8.1
- RDNs in DNs of X.509 certificates can now optionally be matched less strict. The global strongswan.conf option charon.rdn_matching takes two alternative values that cause the matching…
- Record
openSUSE-SU-2020:0403-1- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVopenSUSE-SU-2024:11411-1 No score
strongswan-5.9.0-1.9 on GA media
These are all security issues fixed in the strongswan-5.9.0-1.9 package on the GA media of openSUSE Tumbleweed.
- Record
openSUSE-SU-2024:11411-1- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVSUSE-SU-2020:0743-1 No score
Security update for strongswan
This update for strongswan fixes the following issues:
Strongswan was updated to version 5.8.2 (jsc#SLE-11370).
Security issue fixed:
- CVE-2018-6459: Fixed a DoS vulnerability in the parser for PKCS#1 RSASSA-PSS signatures that was caused by insufficient input validation (bsc#1079548).
Full changelogs:
Version 5.8.2
- Identity-based CA constraints, which enforce that the certificate chain of the remote peer contains a CA certificate with a specific identity, are supported via vici/swanctl.conf. This is similar to the existing CA constraints but doesn't require that the CA certificate is locally installed, for instance, intermediate CA certificates received from the peers. Wildcard identity matching (e.g. ..., OU=Research, CN=*) could also be used for the latter but requires trust in the intermediate CAs to only issue certificates with legitimate subject DNs (e.g. the 'Sales' CA must not issue certificates with OU=Research). With the new constraint that's not necessary as long as a path length basic constraint (--pathlen for pki --issue) prevents intermediate CAs from issuing further intermediate CAs.
- Intermediate CA certificates may now be sent in hash-and-URL encoding by configuring a base URL for the parent CA (#3234, swanctl/rw-hash-and-url-multi-level).
- Implemented NIST SP-800-90A Deterministic Random Bit Generator (DRBG) based on AES-CTR and SHA2-HMAC modes. Currently used by the gmp and ntru plugins.
- Random nonces sent in an OCSP requests are now expected in the corresponding OCSP responses.
- The kernel-netlink plugin now ignores deprecated IPv6 addresses for MOBIKE. Whether temporary or permanent IPv6 addresses are included now depends on the charon.prefer_temporary_addrs setting (#3192).
- Extended Sequence Numbers (ESN) are configured via PF_KEY if supported by the kernel.
- The PF_KEY socket's receive buffer in the kernel-pfkey plugin is now cleared before sending requests, as many of the messages sent by the kernel are sent as broadcasts to all PF_KEY sockets. This is an issue if an external tool is used to manage SAs/policies unrelated to IPsec (#3225).
- The vici plugin now uses unique section names for CHILD_SAs in child-updown events (7c74ce9190).
- For individually deleted CHILD_SAs (in particular for IKEv1) the vici child-updown event now includes more information about the CHILD_SAs such as traffic statistics (#3198).
- Custom loggers are correctly re-registered if log levels are changed via stroke loglevel (#3182).
- Avoid lockups during startup on low entropy systems when using OpenSSL 1.1.1 (095a2c2eac).
- Instead of failing later when setting a key, creating HMACs via openssl plugin now fails instantly if the underlying hash algorithm isn't supported (e.g. MD5 in FIPS-mode) so fallbacks to other plugins work properly (#3284).
- Exponents of RSA keys read from TPM 2.0 via SAPI are correctly converted (8ee1242f1438).
- Routing table IDs > 255 are supported for custom routes on Linux.
- To avoid races, the check for hardware offloading support in the kernel-netlink plugin is performed during initialization of the plugin (a605452c03).
- The D-Bus config file for charon-nm is now installed in $(datadir)/dbus-1/system.d instead of $(sysconfdir)/dbus-1/system.d, which is intended for sysadmin overrides. INVALID_MAJOR_VERSION notifies are now correctly sent in messages of the same exchange type and with the same message ID as the request.
- IKEv2 SAs are now immediately destroyed when sending or receiving INVALID_SYNTAX notifies in authenticated messages.
- For developers working from the repository the configure script now aborts if GNU gperf is not found.
Version 5.8.1
- RDNs in DNs of X.509 certificates can now optionally be matched less strict. The global strongswan.conf option charon.rdn_matching takes two alternative values that cause the matching…
- Record
SUSE-SU-2020:0743-1- Updated
- 2026-11-02
Affected products
Affected packages
| Package | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|
strongswanDebian:12 |
before 5.6.2-1 | 5.6.2-1 |
strongswanDebian:13 |
before 5.6.2-1 | 5.6.2-1 |
strongswanDebian:14 |
before 5.6.2-1 | 5.6.2-1 |
strongswanSUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP1 |
before 5.8.2-4.6.14 | 5.8.2-4.6.14 |
strongswanopenSUSE:Leap 15.1 |
before 5.8.2-lp151.4.6.1 | 5.8.2-lp151.4.6.1 |
strongswanopenSUSE:Tumbleweed From an advisory covering 7 CVEs |
before 5.9.0-1.9 | 5.9.0-1.9 |
History
| Recorded | Changed | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| affected, facts | ||
| aliases | EUVD | |
| first indexed | CVE List, GitHub Advisories, NVD, OSV |
Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.
In short
CVE-2018-6459 is a medium vulnerability (CVSS 5.3) in Strongswan, published February 20, 2018. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 1.05%, the 64th percentile. Fixed in strongswan 5.6.2-1.
References
security.gentoo.org/glsa/201811-16
strongswan.org/blog/2018/02/19/strongswan-vulnerability-%28cve-2018-6459%29.html
lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-03/msg00047.html
nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-6459
strongswan.org/blog/2018/02/19/strongswan-vulnerability-(cve-2018-6459).html
github.com/advisories/GHSA-66xj-v6xw-92v4
Show 11 moreShow less
security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2018-6459
suse.com/support/update/announcement/2020/suse-su-20200743-1
bugzilla.suse.com/1079548
suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-6459
lists.opensuse.org/archives/list/[email protected]/thread/DECZRHNDXHGFAFDGFC4MOC7O556TQEJF
suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-11185
suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-9022
suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-9023
suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-10811
suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-17540
suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-5388
Left out here: the rest of 2 source descriptions. The JSON record has them.