RNP 0.18.0 Vulnerable PKESK session keys
Vulnerability Description
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.
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:
- Johannes Roth (MTG AG)
References
- https://github.com/rnpgp/rnp/commit/7bd9a8dc356aae756b40755be76d36205b6b161a
- https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/rnp
- https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/rnp
- https://packages.gentoo.org/packages/dev-util/librnp
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2415863
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/cve-2025-13402
- https://open.ribose.com/advisories/ra-2025-11-20/
- https://github.com/rnpgp/rnp/releases/tag/v0.18.1
Affected Vendor
Ribose
View all reports →Affected Software
Timeline
CVSS Vectors
Weaknesses (CWE)
MITRE ATT&CK TTPs
No associated TTPs found for this vulnerability.