In RNP version 0.18.0 a refactoring regression causes the symmetric session key used for Public-Key Encrypted Session Key (PKESK) packets to be left uninitialized except for zeroing, resulting in it always being an all-zero byte array.
Any data encrypted using public-key encryption in this release can be decrypted trivially by supplying an all-zero session key, fully compromising confidentiality.
The vulnerability affects only public key encryption (PKESK packets). Passphrase-based encryption (SKESK packets) is not affected.
Root cause: Vulnerable session key buffer used in PKESK packet generation.
The defect was introduced in commit `7bd9a8dc356aae756b40755be76d36205b6b161a` where initialization logic inside `encrypted_build_skesk()` only randomized the key for the SKESK path and omitted it for the PKESK path.
CVSS Details
- CVSS 4.0 Base Score: 7.7 (HIGH)
- CVSS 4.0 Vector: (CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:Y/R:X/V:X/RE:H/U:Red)
- CVSS 3.1 Base Score: 7.5
- CVSS 3.1 Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N)
Covered by Rapid7
| Product | Vendor Advisory | Solution File | Added | Published |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gentoo Linux | — | Upgrade dev-util/librnp. | Nov 26, 2025 | Nov 26, 2025 |
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