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CVE-2020-8918

TPM 1.2 key authorization values are vulnerable to a TPM transport eavesdropper

6.3 MediumFix available

An improperly initialized 'migrationAuth' value in Google's go-tpm TPM1.2 library versions prior to 0.3.0 can lead an eavesdropping attacker to discover the auth value for a key created with CreateWrapKey. An attacker listening in on the channel can collect both 'encUsageAuth' and 'encMigrationAuth', and then can calculate 'usageAuth ^ encMigrationAuth' as the 'migrationAuth' can be guessed for all keys created with CreateWrapKey. TPM2.0 is not impacted by this. We recommend updating your library to 0.3.0 or later, or, if you cannot update, to call CreateWrapKey with a random 20-byte value for 'migrationAuth'.

Attack profile

How easy it is to exploit

Attack vector
Local
Complexity
High
Privileges needed
None
User interaction
Required

What an attacker can affect

Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
None

Exploit likelihood

0.18%Unchanged since Apr 14, 2021
90%50%10%1%

What each source reports

CVE List Score used 6.3

TPM 1.2 key authorization values are vulnerable to a TPM transport eavesdropper

An improperly initialized 'migrationAuth' value in Google's go-tpm TPM1.2 library versions prior to 0.3.0 can lead an eavesdropping attacker to discover the auth value for a key created with CreateWrapKey. An attacker listening in on the channel can collect both 'encUsageAuth' and 'encMigrationAuth', and then can calculate 'usageAuth ^ encMigrationAuth' as the 'migrationAuth' can be guessed for all keys created with CreateWrapKey. TPM2.0 is not impacted by this. We recommend updating your library to 0.3.0 or later, or, if you cannot update, to call CreateWrapKey with a random 20-byte value for 'migrationAuth'.

Record
CVE-2020-8918
CVSS 3.1
6.3 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
Weakness
CWE-665
Updated
2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2022-0847 6.3

An improperly initialized 'migrationAuth' value in Google's go-tpm TPM1.2 library versions prior to 0.3.0 can lead an eavesdropping attacker to discover the auth value for a key created with CreateWrapKey. An attacker listening in on the channel can collect both 'encUsageAuth' and 'encMigrationAuth', and then can calculate 'usageAuth ^ encMigrationAuth' as the 'migrationAuth' can be guessed for all keys created with CreateWrapKey. TPM2.0 is not impacted by this. We recommend updating your library to 0.3.0 or later, or, if you cannot update, to call CreateWrapKey with a random 20-byte value for 'migrationAuth'.

Record
EUVD-2022-0847
CVSS 3.1
6.3 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
Updated
2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-5x29-3hr9-6wpw 7.1

TPM 1.2 key authorization values vulnerable to TPM transport eavesdropper in go-tpm

Impact

TPM 2.0 users are unaffected by this issue.

An adversary eavesdropping on the TPM 1.2 transport path can calculate usageAuth for a key created with CreateWrapKey, even though this value is encrypted as part of the TPM 1.2 command protocol.

The TPM 1.2 CreateWrapKey command accepts two secrets: usageAuth and migrationAuth. The ADIP protocol (TPM 1.2 specification, part 1, section 13.4) calls for these values to be encrypted with two different XOR keys. Due to a bug in go-tpm prior to version 0.3.0, both usageAuth and migrationAuth are encrypted with the same XOR keystream. This allows an adversary to XOR encUsageAuth and encMigrationAuth together to calculate usageAuth ^ encMigrationAuth. Since migrationAuth is moot for all keys created with go-tpm's CreateWrapKey (since all keys created with this function are marked non-migratable), an adversary may guess or know (from code/binary inspection) that migrationAuth is all 0x00 bytes or some other fixed value. Such an adversary can then calculate usageAuth and use this value later to improperly use the created key, unbeknownst to the creator of the key.

Patches

Fixed in go-tpm version 0.3.0.

Workarounds

  • TPM 2.0 users: No workaround needed. This issue only affects TPM 1.2 users.
  • TPM 1.2 users: Call CreateWrapKey with a random 20-byte value for migrationAuth, even though that value is not used again (since CreateWrapKey creates keys that are non-migratable). Do not store or log this value.

Details

TPM 1.2 uses a protocol called ADIP (Authorization Data Insertion Protocol) to encrypt authorization values over-the-wire for newly created objects. This prevents a bus-snooping attack like those publicized by TPM Genie. TPM 2.0 makes this optional (the way to do it is with parameter-encryption sessions). You can read more about ADIP in section 13.4 of Part 1: Design Principles in the latest TPM 1.2 specification. Normally, ADIP consists of the following steps:

Key := SHA1(authSession.SharedSecret || a nonce)
Note: nonces and auth values in TPM 1.2 are always 20 bytes
EncAuth := XOR(Key, Auth)

When commands require one ADIP-encrypted auth value, the nonce is the last nonceEven (last nonce from the TPM). When commands require two ADIP-encrypted auth values, the nonce for the first auth value is still nonceEven, and the nonce for the second auth value is the last nonceOdd, which is the one being provided by the caller along with the current command on the session. The reason for this is that you wouldn't want an adversary to be able to XOR the two encrypted auth values together and come up with (auth 1 XOR key) XOR (auth 2 XOR key) where the "one-time" pad key is used twice and cancels itself out.

Here are the commands that take one authorization value by ADIP:

  • Seal (the sealed data's auth value)
  • Sealx (the sealed data's auth value)
  • CreateKey (the key's auth value)
  • MakeIdentity (the AIK's auth value)
  • ChangeAuth (the entity's new auth value)
  • ChangeAuthOwner (the new owner auth value)
  • Delegate_CreateKeyDelegation (the new delegation auth value)
  • Delegate_CreateOwnerDelegation (the new delegation auth value)
  • NV_DefineSpace (the NV's auth value)
  • CreateCounter (the counter's auth value)

Here are the commands that take two authorization values by ADIP:

  • CreateWrapKey (the key's auth value, and the key's migration (to export out of the TPM) auth value)

The migrationAuth value is never used if the key does not have the TPM_KEY_FLAGS.migratable flag set on it. go-tpm does not currently allow the caller to set this flag. Here was the bug in our implementation of CreateWrapKey():

https://github.com/google/go-tpm/blob/16766ac4521425bd02ad23868fbdf24749268669/tpm/tpm.go#L1322-L1329

Here we see that both usageAuth and…

Record
GHSA-5x29-3hr9-6wpw
CVSS 3.1
7.1 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
Weakness
CWE-665
Updated
2026-11-02
NVD 6.3

An improperly initialized 'migrationAuth' value in Google's go-tpm TPM1.2 library versions prior to 0.3.0 can lead an eavesdropping attacker to discover the auth value for a key created with CreateWrapKey. An attacker listening in on the channel can collect both 'encUsageAuth' and 'encMigrationAuth', and then can calculate 'usageAuth ^ encMigrationAuth' as the 'migrationAuth' can be guessed for all keys created with CreateWrapKey. TPM2.0 is not impacted by this. We recommend updating your library to 0.3.0 or later, or, if you cannot update, to call CreateWrapKey with a random 20-byte value for 'migrationAuth'.

Record
CVE-2020-8918
CVSS 3.1
6.3 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
CVSS 3.1
7.1 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
CVSS 2.0
3.6 LowAV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:N
Weakness
CWE-665
Updated
2026-11-02
OSV 7.1

An improperly initialized 'migrationAuth' value in Google's go-tpm TPM1.2 library versions prior to 0.3.0 can lead an eavesdropping attacker to discover the auth value for a key created with CreateWrapKey. An attacker listening in on the channel can collect both 'encUsageAuth' and 'encMigrationAuth', and then can calculate 'usageAuth ^ encMigrationAuth' as the 'migrationAuth' can be guessed for all keys created with CreateWrapKey. TPM2.0 is not impacted by this. We recommend updating your library to 0.3.0 or later, or, if you cannot update, to call CreateWrapKey with a random 20-byte value for 'migrationAuth'.

Record
CVE-2020-8918
CVSS 3.1
7.1 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVGHSA-5x29-3hr9-6wpw 7.1

TPM 1.2 key authorization values vulnerable to TPM transport eavesdropper in go-tpm

Impact

TPM 2.0 users are unaffected by this issue.

An adversary eavesdropping on the TPM 1.2 transport path can calculate usageAuth for a key created with CreateWrapKey, even though this value is encrypted as part of the TPM 1.2 command protocol.

The TPM 1.2 CreateWrapKey command accepts two secrets: usageAuth and migrationAuth. The ADIP protocol (TPM 1.2 specification, part 1, section 13.4) calls for these values to be encrypted with two different XOR keys. Due to a bug in go-tpm prior to version 0.3.0, both usageAuth and migrationAuth are encrypted with the same XOR keystream. This allows an adversary to XOR encUsageAuth and encMigrationAuth together to calculate usageAuth ^ encMigrationAuth. Since migrationAuth is moot for all keys created with go-tpm's CreateWrapKey (since all keys created with this function are marked non-migratable), an adversary may guess or know (from code/binary inspection) that migrationAuth is all 0x00 bytes or some other fixed value. Such an adversary can then calculate usageAuth and use this value later to improperly use the created key, unbeknownst to the creator of the key.

Patches

Fixed in go-tpm version 0.3.0.

Workarounds

  • TPM 2.0 users: No workaround needed. This issue only affects TPM 1.2 users.
  • TPM 1.2 users: Call CreateWrapKey with a random 20-byte value for migrationAuth, even though that value is not used again (since CreateWrapKey creates keys that are non-migratable). Do not store or log this value.

Details

TPM 1.2 uses a protocol called ADIP (Authorization Data Insertion Protocol) to encrypt authorization values over-the-wire for newly created objects. This prevents a bus-snooping attack like those publicized by TPM Genie. TPM 2.0 makes this optional (the way to do it is with parameter-encryption sessions). You can read more about ADIP in section 13.4 of Part 1: Design Principles in the latest TPM 1.2 specification. Normally, ADIP consists of the following steps:

Key := SHA1(authSession.SharedSecret || a nonce)
Note: nonces and auth values in TPM 1.2 are always 20 bytes
EncAuth := XOR(Key, Auth)

When commands require one ADIP-encrypted auth value, the nonce is the last nonceEven (last nonce from the TPM). When commands require two ADIP-encrypted auth values, the nonce for the first auth value is still nonceEven, and the nonce for the second auth value is the last nonceOdd, which is the one being provided by the caller along with the current command on the session. The reason for this is that you wouldn't want an adversary to be able to XOR the two encrypted auth values together and come up with (auth 1 XOR key) XOR (auth 2 XOR key) where the "one-time" pad key is used twice and cancels itself out.

Here are the commands that take one authorization value by ADIP:

  • Seal (the sealed data's auth value)
  • Sealx (the sealed data's auth value)
  • CreateKey (the key's auth value)
  • MakeIdentity (the AIK's auth value)
  • ChangeAuth (the entity's new auth value)
  • ChangeAuthOwner (the new owner auth value)
  • Delegate_CreateKeyDelegation (the new delegation auth value)
  • Delegate_CreateOwnerDelegation (the new delegation auth value)
  • NV_DefineSpace (the NV's auth value)
  • CreateCounter (the counter's auth value)

Here are the commands that take two authorization values by ADIP:

  • CreateWrapKey (the key's auth value, and the key's migration (to export out of the TPM) auth value)

The migrationAuth value is never used if the key does not have the TPM_KEY_FLAGS.migratable flag set on it. go-tpm does not currently allow the caller to set this flag. Here was the bug in our implementation of CreateWrapKey():

https://github.com/google/go-tpm/blob/16766ac4521425bd02ad23868fbdf24749268669/tpm/tpm.go#L1322-L1329

Here we see that both usageAuth and…

Record
GHSA-5x29-3hr9-6wpw
CVSS 3.1
7.1 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
Weakness
CWE-665
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVGO-2021-0095 No score

Sensitive information exposure in github.com/google/go-tpm

Due to repeated usage of a XOR key an attacker that can eavesdrop on the TPM 1.2 transport is able to calculate usageAuth for keys created using CreateWrapKey, despite it being encrypted, allowing them to use the created key.

Record
GO-2021-0095
Updated
2026-11-02

Affected products

Affected packages

Affected packages
PackageAffectedFixed
github.com/google/go-tpm
Go
before 0.3.0
0.3.0

History

History
RecordedChangedSources
aliasesEUVD
first indexedCVE List, GitHub Advisories, NVD, OSV

Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.

In short

CVE-2020-8918 is a medium vulnerability (CVSS 6.3) in Google Go-tpm, published August 11, 2020. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 0.18%, the 7th percentile. Fixed in github.com/google/go-tpm 0.3.0.

References

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Left out here: the rest of 2 source descriptions. The JSON record has them.

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