PuTTY fails to clear private key information from memory

2015.03.02

Credit: Patrick Coleman

Risk: Low

Local: Yes

Remote: No

CVE: CVE-2015-2157

CWE: CWE-200

CVSS Base Score: 2.1/10

Impact Subscore: 2.9/10

Exploitability Subscore: 3.9/10

Exploit range: Local

Attack complexity: Low

Authentication: No required

Confidentiality impact: Partial

Integrity impact: None

Availability impact: None

PuTTY suite versions 0.51 to 0.63 fail to clear SSH-2 private key
information from memory when loading and saving key files to disk,
leading to potential disclosure. The issue affects keys stored on disk
in encrypted and unencrypted form, and is present in PuTTY, Plink,
PSCP, PSFTP, Pageant and PuTTYgen.

The maintainers have provided details at [1], and have promptly
patched the vulnerability in version 0.64 [2].

Can a CVE please be assigned for this issue?

-Patrick

1. http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/wishlist/private-key-not-wiped-2.html
2. http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/changes.html

References:

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/wishlist/private-key-not-wiped-2.html

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/changes.html

See this note in RAW Version

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PuTTY fails to clear private key information from memory

References:

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