CVE-2022-23806
📋 TL;DR
This vulnerability in Go's elliptic curve cryptography library allows Curve.IsOnCurve to incorrectly return true for invalid field elements. This could enable cryptographic bypass attacks where invalid signatures are accepted as valid. Affects applications using Go's crypto/elliptic package for signature verification before versions 1.16.14 or 1.17.7.
💻 Affected Systems
- Go programming language
- Applications using Go's crypto/elliptic package
📦 What is this software?
Go by Golang
Go by Golang
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Cryptographic bypass allowing forged signatures, potentially enabling authentication bypass, data tampering, or privilege escalation in systems relying on ECC signatures.
Likely Case
Signature validation failures where invalid signatures are incorrectly accepted, compromising integrity of signed data or authentication mechanisms.
If Mitigated
Limited impact if proper input validation and cryptographic boundary checks are already implemented.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires understanding of elliptic curve cryptography and ability to craft specific invalid big.Int values.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: Go 1.16.14, Go 1.17.7, or later
Vendor Advisory: https://groups.google.com/g/golang-announce/c/SUsQn0aSgPQ
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Update Go installation to 1.16.14+ or 1.17.7+. 2. Recompile all Go applications. 3. Redeploy updated binaries. 4. Restart services using Go applications.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Input validation wrapper
allImplement custom validation of big.Int values before passing to Curve.IsOnCurve
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement additional signature verification checks outside the vulnerable function
- Monitor for anomalous signature acceptance patterns in authentication/logging systems
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check Go version with 'go version'. If output shows version <1.16.14 or 1.17.x <1.17.7, system is vulnerable.Check Version:
go versionVerify Fix Applied:
After update, run 'go version' to confirm version is 1.16.14+ or 1.17.7+. Test signature validation with known invalid inputs.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Multiple failed signature validations followed by unexpected successes
- Anomalous authentication patterns
Network Indicators:
- Unusual cryptographic handshake patterns
- Signature-based protocol anomalies
SIEM Query:
Search for authentication failures followed by successes from same source within short timeframes🔗 References
- https://groups.google.com/g/golang-announce/c/SUsQn0aSgPQ
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2022/04/msg00017.html
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2022/04/msg00018.html
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/04/msg00021.html
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202208-02
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20220225-0006/
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpujul2022.html
- https://groups.google.com/g/golang-announce/c/SUsQn0aSgPQ
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2022/04/msg00017.html
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2022/04/msg00018.html
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/04/msg00021.html
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202208-02
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20220225-0006/
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpujul2022.html
