[QPID-8504] [Broker-J] Usage of default mode for "AES" is insecure

• Type: Improvement
• Status: Resolved
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Resolved
• Fix Version/s: qpid-java-broker-8.0.4
• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: Md Mahir Asef Kabir
• Created: 05/Feb/21 14:51
• Updated: 31/Mar/21 00:05
• Resolved: 14/Feb/21 23:07

Description

In file https://github.com/apache/qpid-broker-j/blob/a70ed6f5edbcf0e8690447d48a1fe64e599cb703/broker-core/src/main/java/org/apache/qpid/server/security/encryption/AESKeyFileEncrypter.java (at Line 55), the default "AES" algorithm has been used which imposes insecure "ECB" mode.

Security Impact:

ECB mode allows the attacker to do the following -
detect whether two ECB-encrypted messages are identical;
detect whether two ECB-encrypted messages share a common prefix;
detect whether two ECB-encrypted messages share other common substrings, as long as those substrings are aligned at block boundaries; or
detect whether (and where) a single ECB-encrypted message contains repetitive data (such as long runs of spaces or null bytes, repeated header fields, or coincidentally repeated phrases in the text). - Collected from here

Useful Resources:

https://blog.filippo.io/the-ecb-penguin/

Solution we suggest:

Use GCM mode instead of default or ECB mode.

Please share with us your opinions/comments if there is any:

Is the bug report helpful?