SSA-028723

Siemens Security Advisory by Siemens ProductCERT

SSA-028723: Multiple OpenSSL Vulnerabilities in BFCClient Before V2.17

Publication Date:	2025-08-12
Last Update:	2025-08-13
Current Version:	V1.1
CVSS v3.1 Base Score:	9.8
CVSS v4.0 Base Score:	8.7

SUMMARY

Siemens BFCClient contains multiple vulnerabilities in the integrated OpenSSL component that could allow an attacker to read memory contents, to change the application behaviour or to create a denial of service condition.

Siemens has released a new version for BFCClient and recommends to update to the latest version.

KNOWN AFFECTED PRODUCTS

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Affected Product and Versions	Remediation
BFCClient All versions < V2.17 affected by all CVEs CVE-2021-3711 CVE-2021-3712 CVE-2022-0778 CVE-2023-0286 CVE-2023-0464	Update to V2.17 or later version. Contact customer support to obtain the update See further recommendations from section Workarounds and Mitigations

WORKAROUNDS AND MITIGATIONS

Siemens has identified the following specific workarounds and mitigations that customers can apply to reduce the risk:

CVE-2023-0286: Disable CRL (certification revocation list) checking, if possible

Product-specific remediations or mitigations can be found in the section Known Affected Products.
Please follow the General Security Recommendations.

GENERAL SECURITY RECOMMENDATIONS

As a general security measure, Siemens strongly recommends to protect network access to devices with appropriate mechanisms. In order to operate the devices in a protected IT environment, Siemens recommends to configure the environment according to Siemens' operational guidelines for Industrial Security (Download: https://www.siemens.com/cert/operational-guidelines-industrial-security), and to follow the recommendations in the product manuals. Additional information on Industrial Security by Siemens can be found at: https://www.siemens.com/industrialsecurity

VULNERABILITY DESCRIPTION

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This chapter describes all vulnerabilities (CVE-IDs) addressed in this security advisory. Wherever applicable, it also documents the product-specific impact of the individual vulnerabilities.

Vulnerability CVE-2021-3711

In order to decrypt SM2 encrypted data an application is expected to call the API function EVP_PKEY_decrypt(). Typically an application will call this function twice. The first time, on entry, the "out" parameter can be NULL and, on exit, the "outlen" parameter is populated with the buffer size required to hold the decrypted plaintext. The application can then allocate a sufficiently sized buffer and call EVP_PKEY_decrypt() again, but this time passing a non-NULL value for the "out" parameter. A bug in the implementation of the SM2 decryption code means that the calculation of the buffer size required to hold the plaintext returned by the first call to EVP_PKEY_decrypt() can be smaller than the actual size required by the second call. This can lead to a buffer overflow when EVP_PKEY_decrypt() is called by the application a second time with a buffer that is too small. A malicious attacker who is able present SM2 content for decryption to an application could cause attacker chosen data to overflow the buffer by up to a maximum of 62 bytes altering the contents of other data held after the buffer, possibly changing application behaviour or causing the application to crash. The location of the buffer is application dependent but is typically heap allocated.

CVSS v3.1 Base Score	9.8
CVSS v3.1 Vector	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CWE	CWE-120: Buffer Copy without Checking Size of Input ('Classic Buffer Overflow')

Vulnerability CVE-2021-3712

ASN.1 strings are represented internally within OpenSSL as an ASN1_STRING structure which contains a buffer holding the string data and a field holding the buffer length. This contrasts with normal C strings which are repesented as a buffer for the string data which is terminated with a NUL (0) byte. Although not a strict requirement, ASN.1 strings that are parsed using OpenSSL's own "d2i" functions (and other similar parsing functions) as well as any string whose value has been set with the ASN1_STRING_set() function will additionally NUL terminate the byte array in the ASN1_STRING structure. However, it is possible for applications to directly construct valid ASN1_STRING structures which do not NUL terminate the byte array by directly setting the "data" and "length" fields in the ASN1_STRING array. This can also happen by using the ASN1_STRING_set0() function. Numerous OpenSSL functions that print ASN.1 data have been found to assume that the ASN1_STRING byte array will be NUL terminated, even though this is not guaranteed for strings that have been directly constructed. Where an application requests an ASN.1 structure to be printed, and where that ASN.1 structure contains ASN1_STRINGs that have been directly constructed by the application without NUL terminating the "data" field, then a read buffer overrun can occur. The same thing can also occur during name constraints processing of certificates (for example if a certificate has been directly constructed by the application instead of loading it via the OpenSSL parsing functions, and the certificate contains non NUL terminated ASN1_STRING structures). It can also occur in the X509_get1_email(), X509_REQ_get1_email() and X509_get1_ocsp() functions. If a malicious actor can cause an application to directly construct an ASN1_STRING and then process it through one of the affected OpenSSL functions then this issue could be hit. This might result in a crash (causing a Denial of Service attack). It could also result in the disclosure of private memory contents (such as private keys, or sensitive plaintext). Fixed in OpenSSL 1.1.1l (Affected 1.1.1-1.1.1k). Fixed in OpenSSL 1.0.2za (Affected 1.0.2-1.0.2y).

CVSS v3.1 Base Score	7.4
CVSS v3.1 Vector	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:H/E:P/RL:O/RC:C
CWE	CWE-125: Out-of-bounds Read

Vulnerability CVE-2022-0778

The BN_mod_sqrt() function in openSSL, which computes a modular square root, contains a bug that can cause it to loop forever for non-prime moduli. Internally this function is used when parsing certificates that contain elliptic curve public keys in compressed form or explicit elliptic curve parameters with a base point encoded in compressed form. It is possible to trigger the infinite loop by crafting a certificate that has invalid explicit curve parameters. Since certificate parsing happens prior to verification of the certificate signature, any process that parses an externally supplied certificate may thus be subject to a denial of service attack. The infinite loop can also be reached when parsing crafted private keys as they can contain explicit elliptic curve parameters.

CVSS v3.1 Base Score	7.5
CVSS v3.1 Vector	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CVSS v4.0 Base Score	8.7
CVSS v4.0 Vector	CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
CWE	CWE-835: Loop with Unreachable Exit Condition ('Infinite Loop')

Vulnerability CVE-2023-0286

There is a type confusion vulnerability relating to X.400 address processing inside an X.509 GeneralName. X.400 addresses were parsed as an ASN1_STRING but the public structure definition for GENERAL_NAME incorrectly specified the type of the x400Address field as ASN1_TYPE. This field is subsequently interpreted by the OpenSSL function GENERAL_NAME_cmp as an ASN1_TYPE rather than an ASN1_STRING. When CRL checking is enabled (i.e. the application sets the X509_V_FLAG_CRL_CHECK flag), this vulnerability may allow an attacker to pass arbitrary pointers to a memcmp call, enabling them to read memory contents or enact a denial of service. In most cases, the attack requires the attacker to provide both the certificate chain and CRL, neither of which need to have a valid signature. If the attacker only controls one of these inputs, the other input must already contain an X.400 address as a CRL distribution point, which is uncommon. As such, this vulnerability is most likely to only affect applications which have implemented their own functionality for retrieving CRLs over a network.

CVSS v3.1 Base Score	7.4
CVSS v3.1 Vector	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:H
CWE	CWE-843: Access of Resource Using Incompatible Type ('Type Confusion')

Vulnerability CVE-2023-0464

A security vulnerability has been identified in all supported versions of OpenSSL related to the verification of X.509 certificate chains that include policy constraints. Attackers may be able to exploit this vulnerability by creating a malicious certificate chain that triggers exponential use of computational resources, leading to a denial-of-service (DoS) attack on affected systems.

Policy processing is disabled by default but can be enabled by passing the -policy argument to the command line utilities or by calling the X509_VERIFY_PARAM_set1_policies() function.

CVSS v3.1 Base Score	7.5
CVSS v3.1 Vector	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CWE	CWE-295: Improper Certificate Validation

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Siemens thanks the following party for its efforts:

Nicolas Cano from Dragos Inc. for reporting the vulnerability CVE-2023-0286

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

For further inquiries on security vulnerabilities in Siemens products and solutions, please contact the Siemens ProductCERT: https://www.siemens.com/cert/advisories

HISTORY DATA

V1.0 (2025-08-12):	Publication Date
V1.1 (2025-08-13):	Updated acknowledgments for CVE-2023-0286

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