Security Bulletin: Vulnerability in IBM Java Runtime affects IBM Tivoli Netcool Configuration Manager (ITNCM) (CVE-2015-7575)

Summary

There is a vulnerability in IBM® Runtime Environment Java™ Technology Edition, Version 6 Service Refresh 16 Fix Pack 5 and earlier releases that is used by ITNCM. This vulnerability, commonly referred to as “SLOTH”, was disclosed as part of the IBM Java SDK updates in January 2016.

Vulnerability Details

CVEID: 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 <https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/109415&gt; for the 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

Product

| Java Version
—|—
ITNCM 6.3.0.6 IF003 and earlier. | IBM® Runtime Environment Java™ Technology Edition, Version 6 Service Refresh 16 Fix Pack 5 and earlier releases
ITNCM 6.4.1.3 IF001 and earlier. | IBM® Runtime Environment Java™ Technology Edition, Version 6 Service Refresh 16 Fix Pack 5 and earlier releases
ITNCM 6.4.2.0. | IBM® Runtime Environment Java™ Technology Edition, Version 7, please see Workarounds and Mitigations.

Remediation/Fixes

Product

| VRMF | Remediation/First Fix
—|—|—
ITNCM | 6.4.1.3 | 6.4.1.3-TIV-ITNCM-IF002
http://www.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/quickorder?product=ibm%2FTivoli%2FTivoli+Netcool+Configuration+Manager&fixids=6.4.1.3-TIV-ITNCM-IF002&source=SAR
ITNCM | 6.3.0.6 | 6.3.0.6-TIV-ITNCM-IF005 http://www.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/quickorder?product=ibm%2FTivoli%2FTivoli+Netcool+Configuration+Manager&fixids=6.3.0.6-TIV-ITNCM-IF005&source=SAR

Workarounds and Mitigations

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

Java 6 requires code changes in the JSSE component in addition to the java.security file modifications, so upgrading the JDK is the only solution.