NIXPKGS-2026-1071
GitHub issue
published on
by @LeSuisse Activity log
- Created automatic suggestion
- @LeSuisse accepted
- @LeSuisse published on GitHub
Prefix-substitution forgery via integer overflow in wolfCrypt CMAC
An integer overflow existed in the wolfCrypt CMAC implementation, that could be exploited to forge CMAC tags. The function wc_CmacUpdate used the guard `if (cmac->totalSz != 0)` to skip XOR-chaining on the first block (where digest is all-zeros and the XOR is a no-op). However, totalSz is word32 and wraps to zero after 2^28 block flushes (4 GiB), causing the guard to erroneously discard the live CBC-MAC chain state. Any two messages sharing a common suffix beyond the 4 GiB mark then produce identical CMAC tags, enabling a zero-work prefix-substitution forgery. The fix removes the guard, making the XOR unconditional; the no-op property on the first block is preserved because digest is zero-initialized by wc_InitCmac_ex.
Affected products
wolfSSL
- =<5.9.0
Package maintainers
-
@fabaff Fabian Affolter <mail@fabian-affolter.ch>
-
@vifino Adrian Pistol <vifino@tty.sh>