An out-of-bounds write flaw was found in the way NSS performed certain Base64-decoding operations. An attacker could use this flaw to create a specially crafted certificate which, when parsed by NSS, could cause it to crash or execute arbitrary code, using the permissions of the user running an application compiled against the NSS library.
Find out more about CVE-2017-5461 from the MITRE CVE dictionary dictionary and NIST NVD.
The security flaw exists in NSS library Base64 encoder/decoder code. Any application which uses NSS library to parse base64 encoded data could possibly be affected by the flaw. For example:
Servers compiled against NSS which parse untrusted certificates or any other base64 encoded data from its users.
Utilities like curl etc which use NSS to parse user provided base64 encoded certificates.
Applications like Firefox which use NSS to parse client-certificates before passing them to the web server.
| CVSS3 Base Score | 9.8 |
|---|---|
| CVSS3 Base Metrics | CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
| Attack Vector | Network |
| Attack Complexity | Low |
| Privileges Required | None |
| User Interaction | None |
| Scope | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | High |
| Integrity Impact | High |
| Availability Impact | High |
| Platform | Errata | Release Date |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 (nss) | RHSA-2017:1100 | 2017-04-20 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux Extended Update Support 6.7 (nss-util) | RHSA-2017:1102 | 2017-04-20 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 (nss) | RHSA-2017:1100 | 2017-04-20 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 5 ELS) (nss) | RHSA-2017:1101 | 2017-04-20 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server TUS (v. 6.6) (nss-util) | RHSA-2017:1102 | 2017-04-20 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux Long Life (v. 5.9 server) (nss) | RHSA-2017:1103 | 2017-04-20 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux Extended Update Support 7.2 (nss-util) | RHSA-2017:1102 | 2017-04-20 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux Advanced Update Support 6.6 (nss-util) | RHSA-2017:1102 | 2017-04-20 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server TUS (v. 6.5) (nss-util) | RHSA-2017:1102 | 2017-04-20 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux Advanced Update Support 6.4 (nss-util) | RHSA-2017:1102 | 2017-04-20 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux Advanced Update Support 6.5 (nss-util) | RHSA-2017:1102 | 2017-04-20 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux Advanced Update Support 6.2 (nss-util) | RHSA-2017:1102 | 2017-04-20 |
| Platform | Package | State |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 | nss | Affected |
Vulmon