CVE-2024-25714
📋 TL;DR
CVE-2024-25714 is a critical timing side-channel vulnerability in Rhonabwy's HMAC signature verification that allows attackers to potentially forge valid signatures by analyzing comparison timing differences. This affects all systems using Rhonabwy versions through 1.1.13 for cryptographic operations. Attackers could bypass authentication or integrity checks by exploiting the non-constant-time string comparison.
💻 Affected Systems
- Rhonabwy
📦 What is this software?
Rhonabwy by Rhonabwy Project
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Complete system compromise through forged authentication tokens, allowing unauthorized access to protected resources, data manipulation, or privilege escalation.
Likely Case
Authentication bypass in applications using Rhonabwy for HMAC verification, potentially leading to unauthorized API access or session hijacking.
If Mitigated
Limited impact with proper network segmentation and additional authentication layers, though cryptographic integrity remains compromised.
🎯 Exploit Status
Timing attacks require precise measurements but are well-documented; exploitation depends on network conditions and attacker capability to measure timing differences accurately.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: Versions after commit f9fd9a1c77e48b514ebb3baf0360f87eef3d846e
Vendor Advisory: https://github.com/babelouest/rhonabwy/commit/f9fd9a1c77e48b514ebb3baf0360f87eef3d846e
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Update Rhonabwy to version after commit f9fd9a1c77e48b514ebb3baf0360f87eef3d846e. 2. Recompile any applications using Rhonabwy. 3. Restart services using the updated library.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Replace strcmp with constant-time comparison
linuxManually patch the vulnerable strcmp usage with constant-time memory comparison functions
sed -i 's/strcmp/gnutls_memcmp/g' affected_source_files.c
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement additional authentication layers (multi-factor authentication) to reduce impact of potential signature forgery
- Network segmentation to limit attack surface and monitor for timing attack patterns
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check Rhonabwy version: if version ≤ 1.1.13, system is vulnerable. Examine source code for strcmp usage in HMAC verification functions.Check Version:
Check library version or build timestamp; for source builds, verify commit hash includes f9fd9a1c77e48b514ebb3baf0360f87eef3d846eVerify Fix Applied:
Verify the commit f9fd9a1c77e48b514ebb3baf0360f87eef3d846e is included in your build and that strcmp has been replaced with gnutls_memcmp in HMAC verification code.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Multiple failed HMAC verification attempts with similar timing patterns
- Unexpected successful authentications after failed attempts
Network Indicators:
- Unusual timing patterns in authentication requests
- Repeated requests with slightly varying signatures
SIEM Query:
source="authentication_logs" AND (event="HMAC_verification_failed" OR event="HMAC_verification_success") | stats count by src_ip, event | where count > threshold