Use of a Key Past its Expiration Date
Draft Base
Structure: Simple
Description
The product uses a cryptographic key or password past its expiration date, which diminishes its safety significantly by increasing the timing window for cracking attacks against that key.
While the expiration of keys does not necessarily ensure that they are compromised, it is a significant concern that keys which remain in use for prolonged periods of time have a decreasing probability of integrity. For this reason, it is important to replace keys within a period of time proportional to their strength.
Common Consequences 1
Scope: Access Control
Impact: Bypass Protection MechanismGain Privileges or Assume Identity
The cryptographic key in question may be compromised, providing a malicious user with a method for authenticating as the victim.
Potential Mitigations 1
Phase: Architecture and Design
Adequate consideration should be put in to the user interface in order to notify users previous to the key's expiration, to explain the importance of new key generation and to walk users through the process as painlessly as possible.
Demonstrative Examples 1
The following code attempts to verify that a certificate is valid.
Code Example:
Bad
C
c//do stuff* }
The code checks if the certificate is not yet valid, but it fails to check if a certificate is past its expiration date, thus treating expired certificates as valid.
Observed Examples 1
CVE-2021-33020Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) system for hospitals uses a cryptographic key or password past its expiration date
References 2
24 Deadly Sins of Software Security
Michael Howard, David LeBlanc, and John Viega
McGraw-Hill
2010
ID: REF-44
The CLASP Application Security Process
Secure Software, Inc.
2005
ID: REF-18
Likelihood of Exploit
Low
Applicable Platforms
Languages:
Not Language-Specific : Undetermined
Modes of Introduction
Architecture and Design
Related Weaknesses
Taxonomy Mapping
- CLASP