CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2018-15836 — Xelerance Openswan security vulnerability

High CVSS 7.5

In verify_signed_hash() in lib/liboswkeys/signatures.c in Openswan before 2.6.50.1, the RSA implementation does not verify the value of padding string during PKCS#1 v1.5 signature verification. Consequently, a remote attacker can forge signatures when small public exponents are being used. IKEv2 signature verification is affected when RAW RSA keys are used.

Severity
High
CVSS
7.5 (3.0)
Published
2018-09-26
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-347

Affected products

  • xelerance / openswan

Matched remediation archetype

Cryptography, certificate, signature, and channel validation

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Inventory affected algorithms, key uses, trust stores, certificate validation settings, random sources, and plaintext channels across clients and services.
  • Determine which secrets, identities, signatures, or data protections depend on the affected primitive or validation path.
  • Check debug, compatibility, fallback, and hostname or audience override settings in build and runtime configuration.

Remediate safely

  • Use a maintained platform cryptographic API with approved algorithms, modes, parameters, randomness, and full peer identity validation.
  • Remove insecure fallback and validation bypasses; separate keys by purpose and load them from managed secret storage.
  • Plan rotation or reissuance for affected keys, certificates, tokens, hashes, or ciphertext and document compatibility sequencing.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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