CVE-2024-41949: biscuit-auth vulnerable to public key confusion in third party block
Third-party blocks can be generated without transferring the whole token to the third-party authority. Instead, a ThirdPartyBlock
request can be sent, providing only the necessary info to generate a third-party block and to sign it:
- the public key of the previous block (used in the signature)
- the public keys part of the token symbol table (for public key interning in datalog expressions)
A third-part block request forged by a malicious user can trick the third-party authority into generating datalog trusting the wrong keypair.
Consider the following example (nominal case)
- Authority
A
emits the following token:check if thirdparty("b") trusting ${pubkeyB}
- The well-behaving holder then generates a third-party block request based on the token and sends it to third-party authority
B
- Third-party
B
generates the following third-party blockthirdparty("b"); check if thirdparty("c") trusting ${pubkeyC}
- The token holder now must obtain a third-party block from third party
C
to be able to use the token
Now, with a malicious user:
- Authority
A
emits the following token:check if thirdparty("b") trusting ${pubkeyB}
- The holder then attenuates the token with the following third party block
thirdparty("c")
, signed with a keypairpubkeyD, privkeyD)
they generate - The holder then generates a third-party block request based on this token, but alter the
ThirdPartyBlockRequest
publicKeys
field and replacepubkeyD
withpubkeyC
- Third-party
B
generates the following third-party blockthirdparty("b"); check if thirdparty("c") trusting ${pubkeyC}
- Due to the altered symbol table, the actual meaning of the block is
thirdparty("b"); check if thirdparty("c") trusting ${pubkeyD}
- The attacker can now use the token without obtaining a third-party block from
C
.
References
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