Security Bulletin: Vulnerability in IBM Java SDK affects IBM System Networking Switch Center (CVE-2015-7575)

Summary

There is a vulnerability in IBM®; SDK Java™ Technology Edition, Version 7 that is used by IBM System Networking Switch Center. This vulnerability, commonly referred to as “SLOTH”, was disclosed as part of the IBM Java SDK updates in January 2016.

Vulnerability Details

Summary

There is a vulnerability in IBM® SDK Java™ Technology Edition, Version 7 that is used by IBM System Networking Switch Center. This vulnerability, commonly referred to as “SLOTH”, was disclosed as part of the IBM Java SDK updates in January 2016.

Vulnerability Details

CVE-ID: CVE-2015-7575

Description: The TLS protocol could allow weaker than expected security caused by a collision attack when using the MD5 hash function for signing a ServerKeyExchange message during a TLS handshake. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability using man-in-the-middle techniques to impersonate a TLS server and obtain credentials. This vulnerability is commonly referred to as “SLOTH”.

CVSS Base Score: 7.1
CVSS Temporal Score: See <http://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/109415&gt; for current score
CVSS Environmental Score*: Undefined
CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/UI:U/C:H/I:L/A:N)

Affected products and versions

All versions of IBM System Networking Switch Center prior to 7.3.2.0.

Remediation/Fixes

IBM System Networking Switch Center 7.3.2.0.
The install package can be found on IBM’s Passport Advantage website:

• <http://www-01.ibm.com/software/passportadvantage/&gt;

Workarounds and Mitigations

For CVE-2015-7575:

Users of Java 7 and later can address the issue by updating the /jre/lib/security/java.security file as follows (both steps are required):

• Add MD5 to the jdk.certpath.disabledAlgorithms property — e.g. jdk.certpath.disabledAlgorithms=MD2, RSA keySize < 1024, MD5
• Add MD5withRSA to the jdk.tls.disabledAlgorithms property — e.g. jdk.tls.disabledAlgorithms=SSLv3, RC4, DH keySize < 768, MD5withRSA

References

• Complete CVSS V3 Guide
• On-line Calculator V3

Related Information
IBM Secure Engineering Web Portal
IBM Product Security Incident Response Blog

Acknowledgement

CVE-2015-7575 was reported to IBM by Karthikeyan Bhargavan at INRIA in Paris, France

Change History
29 February 2016: Original Version Published

• The CVSS Environment Score is customer environment specific and will ultimately impact the Overall CVSS Score. Customers can evaluate the impact of this vulnerability in their environments by accessing the links in the Reference section of this Security Bulletin.

Disclaimer

According to the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST), the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) is an “industry open standard designed to convey vulnerability severity and help to determine urgency and priority of response.” IBM PROVIDES THE CVSS SCORES “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. CUSTOMERS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF ANY ACTUAL OR POTENTIAL SECURITY VULNERABILITY.