CVE-2023-46129

xkeys Seal encryption used fixed key for all encryption

Published Oct 30, 2023 CVSS 3.1 · 7.5 High EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed
Description
NATS.io is a high performance open source pub-sub distributed communication technology, built for the cloud, on-premise, IoT, and edge computing. The cryptographic key handling library, nkeys, recently gained support for encryption, not just for signing/authentication. This is used in nats-server 2.10 (Sep 2023) and newer for authentication callouts. In nkeys versions 0.4.0 through 0.4.5, corresponding with NATS server versions 2.10.0 through 2.10.3, the nkeys library's `xkeys` encryption handling logic mistakenly passed an array by value into an internal function, where the function mutated that buffer to populate the encryption key to use. As a result, all encryption was actually to an all-zeros key. This affects encryption only, not signing.
FIXME: FILL IN IMPACT ON NATS-SERVER AUTH CALLOUT SECURITY. nkeys Go library 0.4.6, corresponding with NATS Server 2.10.4, has a patch for this issue. No known workarounds are available. For any application handling auth callouts in Go, if using the nkeys library, update the dependency, recompile and deploy that in lockstep.

Remediation

No solution or workaround provided in the CVE record

Tracking

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Advisories

Source ID Title
EUVD EUVD EUVD-2023-2780 NATS.io is a high performance open source pub-sub distributed communication technology, built for the cloud, on-premise, IoT, and edge computing. The cryptographic key handling library, nkeys, recently gained support for encryption, not just for signing/authentication. This is used in nats-server 2.10 (Sep 2023) and newer for authentication callouts. In nkeys versions 0.4.0 through 0.4.5, corresponding with NATS server versions 2.10.0 through 2.10.3, the nkeys library's `xkeys` encryption handling logic mistakenly passed an array by value into an internal function, where the function mutated that buffer to populate the encryption key to use. As a result, all encryption was actually to an all-zeros key. This affects encryption only, not signing. FIXME: FILL IN IMPACT ON NATS-SERVER AUTH CALLOUT SECURITY. nkeys Go library 0.4.6, corresponding with NATS Server 2.10.4, has a patch for this issue. No known workarounds are available. For any application handling auth callouts in Go, if using the nkeys library, update the dependency, recompile and deploy that in lockstep.
Github GHSA Github GHSA GHSA-mr45-rx8q-wcm9 xkeys seal encryption used fixed key for all encryption
History
Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Linuxfoundation
Linuxfoundation nats-server
CPEs cpe:2.3:a:nats:nats_server:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:nats-server:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Vendors & Products Nats nats Server
Linuxfoundation
Linuxfoundation nats-server
Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'yes', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'partial'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}

Weaknesses

Sources

Status
PUBLISHED
Assigner
GitHub_M
Published
Updated
Feb 27, 2025, 8:38 PM
Reserved
Oct 16, 2023, 5:51 PM
Status
Modified
Published
Oct 31, 2023, 12:15 AM
Modified
Jun 17, 2026, 6:30 AM
Severity
Important
Public date
Oct 29, 2023, 12:00 AM