CVE-2023-2975: AES-SIV implementation ignores empty associated data entries

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2023-2975 is a medium (CVSS 5.3) vulnerability in netapp management_services_for_element_software_and_netapp_hci. EPSS estimates a 0.62% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 49.5% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 14-07-2023
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 23-04-2025
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

Issue summary: The AES-SIV cipher implementation contains a bug that causes it to ignore empty associated data entries which are unauthenticated as a consequence. Impact summary: Applications that use the AES-SIV algorithm and want to authenticate empty data entries as associated data can be misled by removing, adding or reordering such empty entries as these are ignored by the OpenSSL implementation. We are currently unaware of any such applications. The AES-SIV algorithm allows for authentication of multiple associated data entries along with the encryption. To authenticate empty data the application has to call EVP_EncryptUpdate() (or EVP_CipherUpdate()) with NULL pointer as the output buffer and 0 as the input buffer length. The AES-SIV implementation in OpenSSL just returns success for such a call instead of performing the associated data authentication operation. The empty data thus will not be authenticated. As this issue does not affect non-empty associated data authentication and we expect it to be rare for an application to use empty associated data entries this is qualified as Low severity issue.

• CWE-354Improper Validation of Integrity Check ValueThe product does not validate or incorrectly validates the integrity check values or "checksums" of a message.
• CWE-287Improper AuthenticationWhen an actor claims to have a given identity, the product does not prove or insufficiently proves that the claim is correct.