CISCO PIX Vulnerability

[Damir.Rajnovic () EUROCERT NET (Damir Rajnovic)]

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Hello there,

Additional details regarding CISCO's Field Notice -
PIX Private Link Key Processing and Cryptography Issues

CISCO PIX Private Link feature uses DES key that is only 48 bits in length.
It is not obvious straight away since key is internally expanded from
7-bytes (as entered in command line) to 8-bytes that is used by DES. If
you dig into that expansion algorithm you'll find that third byte, counting
from the right, is not used at all. This is how key is expanded:

#!/usr/local/bin/perl
# Key used by DES
@key_data=( 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 );
# Key entered in LINK statement
@key_in = ( 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0xda, 0xaa );

# Key expansion algorithm
$byte = ($key_in[6] & 0x3F) << 2;
$key_data[6] |= $byte;
$byte = ($key_in[6] & 0xC0) >> 5;
$key_data[5] |= $byte;

$byte = ($key_in[5] & 0x7F) << 1;
$key_data[7] = $byte;
$byte = ($key_in[5] & 0x80) >> 6;
$key_data[6] |= $byte;
#
# Byte 4 (from left) seems to be ignored
#
$byte = ($key_in[3] & 0x01) << 7;
$key_data[1] |= $byte;
$key_data[0] = ($key_in[3] & 0xFE );

$byte = $key_in[2] & 0x03;
$key_data[2] |= ($byte << 6);
$byte = ($key_in[2] & 0xFC) >> 1;
$key_data[1] |= $byte;

$byte = $key_in[1] & 0x07;
$key_data[3] |= ($byte << 5 );
$byte = $key_in[1] & 0xF8;
$key_data[2] |= ($byte >> 2);

$byte = $key_in[0] & 0x0F;
$key_data[4] |= ($byte << 4);
$byte = $key_in[0] & 0xF0;
$key_data[3] |= ($byte >> 3);
#
# Now you can use key in @key_data for encryption

Apparently, knowing what bits are fixed will not bring attacker
any additional 'gain' in breaking a DES. At least I was told that by
people from sci.crypt group.

Another thing is that PIX is using DES in ECB mode. CISCO admits that
"....ECB is not generally considered to be the best mode in which to
employ DES,...." but you'll have to live with it. CISCO will not fix
that so you'll have to buy future IPSEC/IKE products.

Cheers,

Gaus


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