GLSA 200602-10: GnuPG: Incorrect signature verification

Severity:normal
Title:GnuPG: Incorrect signature verification
Date:02/18/2006
Bugs: #122721
ID:200602-10

Synopsis

Applications relying on GnuPG to authenticate digital signatures may incorrectly believe a signature has been verified.

Background

GnuPG (The GNU Privacy Guard) is a free replacement for PGP (Pretty Good Privacy). As GnuPG does not rely on any patented algorithms, it can be used without any restrictions. gpgv is the OpenPGP signature verification tool provided by the GnuPG system.

Affected packages

Package Vulnerable Unaffected Architecture(s)
app-crypt/gnupg < 1.4.2.1 >= 1.4.2.1 All supported architectures

Description

Tavis Ormandy of the Gentoo Linux Security Auditing Team discovered that automated systems relying on the return code of GnuPG or gpgv to authenticate digital signatures may be misled by malformed signatures. GnuPG documentation states that a return code of zero (0) indicates success, however gpg and gpgv may also return zero if no signature data was found in a detached signature file.

Impact

An attacker may be able to bypass authentication in automated systems relying on the return code of gpg or gpgv to authenticate digital signatures.

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

All GnuPG users should upgrade to the latest version:

    # emerge --sync
    # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=app-crypt/gnupg-1.4.2.1"

References

Availability

This GLSA and any updates to it are available for viewing at the Gentoo Security Website: http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200602-10.xml

Concerns?

Security is a primary focus of Gentoo Linux and ensuring the confidentiality and security of our users machines is of utmost importance to us. Any security concerns should be addressed to security@gentoo.org or alternatively, you may file a bug at https://bugs.gentoo.org.

License

Copyright 2010 Gentoo Foundation, Inc; referenced text belongs to its owner(s). The contents of this document are licensed under the Creative Commons - Attribution / Share Alike license.

Thank you!