oss-security - Re: OpenSSL X.509 Email Address 4-byte Buffer Overflow (CVE-2022-3602), X.509 Email Address Variable Length Buffer Overflow (CVE-2022-3786)

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Date: Tue, 01 Nov 2022 21:52:59 +0100
From: "Erin Shepherd" <erin.shepherd@....eu>
To: oss-security@...ts.openwall.com
Subject: Re: OpenSSL X.509 Email Address 4-byte Buffer Overflow
 (CVE-2022-3602), X.509 Email Address Variable Length Buffer Overflow
 (CVE-2022-3786)

LibreTLS does not track the OpenSSL API, so increasingly software does not build with it (it's not possible to support both LibreSSL and a supported version of OpenSSL without #ifdef hell)

Additionally, there have been breakages to LibreSSL's compatibility with OpenSSL 1.0.

As a general rule, distros don't want to package multiple OpenSSL forks because it just heavily multiplies the amount of security work necessary.

On Tue, 1 Nov 2022, at 20:56, Demi Marie Obenour wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 02, 2022 at 06:35:42AM +1100, Dave Horsfall wrote:
> > On Tue, 1 Nov 2022, Demi Marie Obenour wrote:
> > 
> > [ Massive trim ]
> > 
> > > 3. When will OpenSSL be replaced by something written in a safe
> > >    language, or at least with a better-maintained fork?  I know that
> > >    distributions often cannot use LibreSSL (because FIPS, ugh) or
> > >    BoringSSL (because of no stable API or ABI), but I wonder if e.g.
> > >    libcurl should be linked to BoringSSL instead.
> > 
> > We see this over at https://boringssl.googlesource.com/boringssl/ :
> > 
> >   ``Although BoringSSL is an open source project, it is not intended
> >     for general use, as OpenSSL is. We don't recommend that third parties
> >     depend upon it. Doing so is likely to be frustrating because there
> >     are no guarantees of API or ABI stability.''
> > 
> > If even the manufacturer says that you shouldn't use it...
> 
> My understanding was that libcurl gets updated whenever BoringSSL needs
> a change, and that libcurl’s API does not depend on what TLS backend it
> uses.  Applications would not be impacted, since they would only use the
> libcurl API and ABI.
> 
> That said, this would require constantly updating to new versions of
> libcurl + BoringSSL, so it might not make sense in general.  LibreSSL or
> rustls could well be a better choice.
> -- 
> Sincerely,
> Demi Marie Obenour (she/her/hers)
> Invisible Things Lab
> 
> 
> *Attachments:*
>  * signature.asc

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