[security-dev 01279]: Re: ECC pkcs#11 bug]

Tue Oct 6 12:46:10 UTC 2009

Andrew John Hughes wrote:
> 2009/10/6 Tomas Gustavsson <tomas at primekey.se>:
>> Hi Andrew,
>>
>> I guess no bug Id was created after all.
>> The issue is that the pkcs#11 library returns a tag-length-value
>> encoding for an EC public key, but the Sun provider expects something
>> else. So when trying to read the public key from pkcs#11 we get an
>> exception.
>>
>> The patch, which is very small and backwards compatible (if there are
>> pkcs#11's that does return the value originally expected), can be found
>> here:
>> http://bunny.primekey.se/~lars/sunP11Bug/patch.txt
>>
>> A simple test case:
>> http://bunny.primekey.se/~lars/sunP11Bug/src/test/Main.java
>>
>> We've been in contact with an HSM vendor (Utimaco) and they claim that
>> the tag-length-value is the right way. Since we tested this with several
>> different HSMs it seems they are in agreement as well :-)
>> (I can forward their explanation as well if needed).
>>
>> Kind regards,
>> Tomas
>>
>> PS: Lars (who is my collegue) has completed the "Sun Contribution
>> Agreement".
>>
>>
>> Andrew John Hughes wrote:
>>> 2009/10/5 Tomas Gustavsson <tomas at primekey.se>:
>>>> Hi Vincent and Brad,
>>>>
>>>> I'm not sure how things are at Sun currently. We work with Sun here in
>>>> Sweden so we've heard a bit about wait with the Oracle story.
>>>>
>>>> Anyhow I just want to let you know that if anyone is still working on
>>>> crypto that this bug is very annoying, and affect all existing HSMs as
>>>> far as I can see. ECC is rolling out pretty wide in europe now with new
>>>> electronic passports and other ecc cards.
>>>> So getting this fixed would be quite welcome, it's a small fix. I've
>>>> tested it on SafeNet HSMs myself right now.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Kind regards,
>>>> Tomas Gustavsson
>>>> PrimeKey Solutions AB
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Lars Silvén wrote:
>>>>> -------- Forwarded Message --------
>>>>> From: Brad Wetmore <Bradford.Wetmore at Sun.COM>
>>>>> To: Lars Silvén <lars at primekey.se>
>>>>> Cc: security-dev at openjdk.java.net, Vinnie Ryan <Vincent.Ryan at Sun.COM>
>>>>> Subject: Re: [security-dev 00550]: Re: ECC pkcs#11 bug
>>>>> Date: Thu, 05 Feb 2009 11:34:49 -0800
>>>>>
>>>>> Hi Lars,
>>>>>
>>>>> I was hoping that Vincent Ryan had already contacted you about this.
>>>>>
>>>>> I got redirected from ECC to work on the OpenJDK Bugzilla instance,
>>>>> which is rolling out very soon.  Vincent took over the ECC work late
>>>>> last year along with your submission.  The short answer is, between a
>>>>> lengthy customer escalation and bugzilla, I've been so heads down for
>>>>> the last 4 months, I'm not sure how far he's gotten.
>>>>>
>>>>> Vinnie, can you provide more info?
>>>>>
>>>>> Brad
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Lars Silvén wrote:
>>>>>> Brad,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Any news about the p11 ECC bug.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> When will it be fixed?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Best Regards,
>>>>>> Lars
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Lars Silvén wrote:
>>>>>>> Hello,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Thank you for taking care of this.
>>>>>>> We want this fix in both JDK 6 and 7. I like to know the release date for the
>>>>>>> fix in both versions if possible.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Lars
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Brad Wetmore wrote:
>>>>>>>> Lars Silvén wrote:
>>>>>>>>> Hi Brad,
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Do you have everything you need to fix the bug.
>>>>>>>> I believe so.  I haven't started looking at it closely yet, I'm still
>>>>>>>> mopping up several fires.  Unfortunately, I'm the chef, busboy, and
>>>>>>>> bottle washer for several projects here.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Or is there anything more I could do to help.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> I have now also tested the nCipher HSM. To get their p11 working my
>>>>>>>>> patch had to be applied.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Do you have any idea when we the fix could be released?
>>>>>>>> Are you looking for JDK7, or 6?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Brad
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Best Regards
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Brad Wetmore wrote:
>>>>>>>>>> Lars Silvén wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>> Hi Brad,
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> I have written a simple application that illustrates the problem:
>>>>>>>>>>> http://bunny.primekey.se/~lars/sunP11Bug/src/test/Main.java
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> But you need a p11 module with ECC capability to run it. Do you have
>>>>>>>>>>> one?
>>>>>>>>>> Yes.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> If not I could investigate if one of our HSM vendors could send you
>>>>>>>>>>> one.
>>>>>>>>>>> Also to verify that the public key actually is usable a JCA provider
>>>>>>>>>>> with ECC is needed.
>>>>>>>>>> I'm going to be working on adding ECC to the JCE provider for JDK 7.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Thanks for the case.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Brad
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>  But for that you could use BouncyCastle.
>>>>>>>>>>> Start running the application without parameters and then you get a
>>>>>>>>>>> description of needed parameters.
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> Lars
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> Brad Wetmore wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>> Great, thanks for doing so.
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>> I'll be working on this fairly soon, so I'll get a bug filed.  Do you
>>>>>>>>>>>> have a standalone test case for this already?  See step 3 of the
>>>>>>>>>>>> contribute page.  If you do but you don't have it in jtreg format,
>>>>>>>>>>>> I can
>>>>>>>>>>>> get it into the jtreg format.
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>> Brad
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>> Lars Silvén wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>>> Here is my SCA!
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>> //Lars
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>> Brad Wetmore wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Hi Lars,
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> I have created a patch that is fixing the problem:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> This is Brad Wetmore, I am the Security group Moderator, and also
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> the
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> person who will be handling this when I get back to working on the
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Java
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> ECC implementation.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Unfortunately, I can't take your source contribution yet without a
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> signed copy of the Sun Contribution Agreement in place.  This is
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> done
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> for your protection as well as the Sun's and the OpenJDK
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> community's.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Please see the following link for more information:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>     http://openjdk.java.net/contribute/
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> The Signatories of the SCA are eligible to donate code to all
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> products
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> and projects owned or managed by Sun:  signing it once means you can
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> contribute code to any Sun-sponsored open source project.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> If you have recently signed it and it hasn't yet appeared in our
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> database yet, just let me know.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Discussions of the problem is fine, it's just the source that we
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> can't
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> take at this point.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Brad
>>>>>>>>>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>> What bug are we discussing here? I don't see any patch or bug ID.
> 
> Ah, this sounds like a similar, if not the same bug as 6763530 which
> we discussed here:
> 
> http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/security-dev/2009-September/001252.html
> 
> I posted a patch for this some time ago, as you can see from the
> discussion, and then a revised version based on Michael StJohn's patch
> 
> http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~andrew/6763530/webrev.02/
> 
> but it has not yet been accepted into OpenJDK.  The bug is due to the
> data being DER encoded.  DER octet streams also start with a 4 but the
> length is different from that expected by the current code.  The bug
> is triggered when newer versions of the NSS library are used for ECC
> support.

Excellent. Plenty of people are tripping in to this bug. I hope some
version of patches gets accepted soon!

What's keeping the patch from getting accepted?

Regards,
Tomas