CVE-2023-29409 - CVE House
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Status published Unknown CVE-2023-29409

Large RSA keys can cause high CPU usage in crypto/tls

Vulnerability Description

Extremely large RSA keys in certificate chains can cause a client/server to expend significant CPU time verifying signatures. With fix, the size of RSA keys transmitted during handshakes is restricted to <= 8192 bits. Based on a survey of publicly trusted RSA keys, there are currently only three certificates in circulation with keys larger than this, and all three appear to be test certificates that are not actively deployed. It is possible there are larger keys in use in private PKIs, but we target the web PKI, so causing breakage here in the interests of increasing the default safety of users of crypto/tls seems reasonable.

Impact Analysis

Refer to official advisory for detailed impact metrics.

Remediation

Ensure systems are updated to the latest vendor-supplied patch levels.

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Credits & Attribution

The following person or organization is credited with identifying this vulnerability, as recorded in the NVD database:

  • Mateusz Poliwczak

Affected Vendor

Go standard library

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Affected Software

crypto/tls
Vulnerable Versions:
0, 1.20.0-0, 1.21.0-0

Timeline

Official Publish: August 2nd, 2023
Last Modified: February 13th, 2025
Added to House: July 22nd, 2026

CVSS Vectors

No vector data available

Weaknesses (CWE)

No CWE data available

MITRE ATT&CK TTPs

No associated TTPs found for this vulnerability.