Affected versions of this package are vulnerable to Use of Weak Hash due to inadequate security settings in the PBKDF2 configuration, which uses insecure SHA1 and has a low iteration count of 1. These insecure settings allow attackers to perform brute-force attacks when PBKDF2 is used with the default parameters.
No information is directly exposed when a hash is generated, regardless of whether the PBKDF2 function is in the vulnerable configuration or not. However, it may be possible to recover the original data, more or less easily depending on the configured parameters, using a brute force attack. This is a low impact on the confidentiality of the protected data, which are in a different scope than the vulnerable package.
The attacker similarly may be able to modify some data which is meant to be protected by the vulnerable package - most commonly when it is used for signature verification. This would require a subsequent exploitation, such as forcing a hash collision via length extension attack. The integrity of the data is therefore compromised, but the quantity and targeting of that data is not fully in the attacker's control, yielding a low integrity impact.
According to the crypto-js maintainer:
"Active development of CryptoJS has been discontinued. This library is no longer maintained."
It is recommended to use the Node.js native crypto module.
Workaround
This vulnerability can be avoided by setting PBKDF2 to use SHA-256 instead of SHA-1 and increasing the number of iterations to a sufficiently high value depending on the intended use.
See, for example, the OWASP PBKDF2 Cheat Sheet for recommendations.
Detailed paths
Overview
crypto-js is a library of crypto standards.
Affected versions of this package are vulnerable to Use of Weak Hash due to inadequate security settings in the
PBKDF2configuration, which uses insecure SHA1 and has a low iteration count of 1. These insecure settings allow attackers to perform brute-force attacks whenPBKDF2is used with the default parameters.No information is directly exposed when a hash is generated, regardless of whether the PBKDF2 function is in the vulnerable configuration or not. However, it may be possible to recover the original data, more or less easily depending on the configured parameters, using a brute force attack. This is a low impact on the confidentiality of the protected data, which are in a different scope than the vulnerable package.
The attacker similarly may be able to modify some data which is meant to be protected by the vulnerable package - most commonly when it is used for signature verification. This would require a subsequent exploitation, such as forcing a hash collision via length extension attack. The integrity of the data is therefore compromised, but the quantity and targeting of that data is not fully in the attacker's control, yielding a low integrity impact.
Notes
This vulnerability is related to https://security.snyk.io/vuln/SNYK-JS-CRYPTOES-6032390 in crypto-es.
According to the
crypto-jsmaintainer: "Active development of CryptoJS has been discontinued. This library is no longer maintained." It is recommended to use the Node.js nativecryptomodule.Workaround
This vulnerability can be avoided by setting
PBKDF2to use SHA-256 instead of SHA-1 and increasing the number of iterations to a sufficiently high value depending on the intended use. See, for example, the OWASP PBKDF2 Cheat Sheet for recommendations.Changelog:
2023-10-24 - Initial publication
2023-10-25 - Added fixed version, updated references, separated crypto-es, description changes, updated CVSS, added CVE ID
2023-11-07 - Re-assessed CVSS following a CVSS publication on NVD. No changes made to CVSS.
2024-01-11 - Revised CVSS and description after additional deeper investigation, to reflect the details of the severity assessment
Remediation
Upgrade
crypto-jsto version 4.2.0 or higher.References
SNYK-JS-CRYPTOJS-6028119
(CVE-2023-46233) crypto-js@3.3.0