CVE-2024-13454 - Easy-RSA with OpenSSL 3 may create a CA private key using 3DES
Easy-RSA versions after 3.0.5 and before 3.2.0, when used with OpenSSL 3, incorrectly encrypt password-protected CA private keys using the des-ede3-cbc cipher through the easyrsa build-ca command. The expected cipher is aes-256-cbc.
How to Fix the Private CA Key:
- Use the
easyrsa set-pass cacommand to re-encrypt the private CA key using the correct cipher algorithm. This is compatible across all Easy-RSA versions.
Additional Recommendation:
- Upgrade to Easy-RSA version 3.2.0 or newer.
The set-pass command was introduced in Easy-RSA v3.1.2 (GitHub PR #756).
Workflow Using OpenSSL v3 with Easy-RSA:
For each version of Easy-RSA from v3.0.5 through v3.2.1, using build-ca and then set-pass ca to re-encrypt the CA key with a new password:
- Note: Support for OpenSSL v3 was first introduced in Easy-RSA v3.1.0 (GitHub PR #492).
| Version | build-ca | set-pass |
|---|---|---|
| EasyRSA-3.0.5 | des-ede3-cbc | aes-256-cbc |
| EasyRSA-3.0.6 | des-ede3-cbc | aes-256-cbc |
| EasyRSA-3.0.7 | des-ede3-cbc | aes-256-cbc |
| EasyRSA-3.0.8 | des-ede3-cbc | aes-256-cbc |
| EasyRSA-3.0.9 | des-ede3-cbc | aes-256-cbc |
| EasyRSA-3.1.0 | des-ede3-cbc | aes-256-cbc |
| EasyRSA-3.1.1 | des-ede3-cbc | aes-256-cbc |
| EasyRSA-3.1.2 | des-ede3-cbc | aes-256-cbc |
| EasyRSA-3.1.3 | des-ede3-cbc | aes-256-cbc |
| EasyRSA-3.1.4 | des-ede3-cbc | aes-256-cbc |
| EasyRSA-3.1.5 | des-ede3-cbc | aes-256-cbc |
| EasyRSA-3.1.6 | des-ede3-cbc | aes-256-cbc |
| EasyRSA-3.1.7 | des-ede3-cbc | aes-256-cbc |
| EasyRSA-3.2.0 | aes-256-cbc | aes-256-cbc |
| EasyRSA-3.2.1 | aes-256-cbc | aes-256-cbc |
OpenSSL versions 1.1.0l and 1.1.1w have been tested without issues. OpenSSL 1.x does not exhibit this issue.
However, the set-rsa-pass and set-ec-pass commands have been noted to change the CA key format from PKCS12 to PKC8 for Easy-RSA versions 3.0.9 through 3.1.7, with the cipher consistently being aes-256-cbc.