CVE Vulnerabilities

CVE-2018-10936

Improper Validation of Certificate with Host Mismatch

Published: Aug 30, 2018 | Modified: Nov 07, 2023
CVSS 3.x
8.1
HIGH
Source:
NVD
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVSS 2.x
6.8 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P
RedHat/V2
RedHat/V3
8.1 LOW
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Ubuntu
LOW

A weakness was found in postgresql-jdbc before version 42.2.5. It was possible to provide an SSL Factory and not check the host name if a host name verifier was not provided to the driver. This could lead to a condition where a man-in-the-middle attacker could masquerade as a trusted server by providing a certificate for the wrong host, as long as it was signed by a trusted CA.

Weakness

The product communicates with a host that provides a certificate, but the product does not properly ensure that the certificate is actually associated with that host.

Affected Software

Name Vendor Start Version End Version
Postgresql_jdbc_driver Postgresql * 42.2.5 (excluding)
Libpgjava Ubuntu bionic *
Libpgjava Ubuntu cosmic *
Libpgjava Ubuntu eoan *
Libpgjava Ubuntu groovy *
Libpgjava Ubuntu hirsute *
Libpgjava Ubuntu impish *
Libpgjava Ubuntu kinetic *
Libpgjava Ubuntu trusty *
Libpgjava Ubuntu upstream *
Libpgjava Ubuntu xenial *

Extended Description

Even if a certificate is well-formed, signed, and follows the chain of trust, it may simply be a valid certificate for a different site than the site that the product is interacting with. If the certificate’s host-specific data is not properly checked - such as the Common Name (CN) in the Subject or the Subject Alternative Name (SAN) extension of an X.509 certificate - it may be possible for a redirection or spoofing attack to allow a malicious host with a valid certificate to provide data, impersonating a trusted host. In order to ensure data integrity, the certificate must be valid and it must pertain to the site that is being accessed. Even if the product attempts to check the hostname, it is still possible to incorrectly check the hostname. For example, attackers could create a certificate with a name that begins with a trusted name followed by a NUL byte, which could cause some string-based comparisons to only examine the portion that contains the trusted name. This weakness can occur even when the product uses Certificate Pinning, if the product does not verify the hostname at the time a certificate is pinned.

Potential Mitigations

References