OpenSSL releases may require Node.js security releases

[Sam Roberts]

### Summary

The Node.js project may be releasing new versions across all of its supported

release lines early next week to incorporate upstream patches from OpenSSL.

Please read on for full details.

### OpenSSL

The OpenSSL project

[announced](https://mta.openssl.org/pipermail/openssl-announce/2019-September/000156.html)

this week that they will be releasing versions 1.0.2t and 1.1.1d on the 10th of

September, UTC.  The releases will fix two security defects that are labelled

as "LOW" severity under their

[security policy](https://www.openssl.org/policies/secpolicy.html),

meaning they are:

> ... issues such as those that only affect the openssl command line utility,

> or unlikely configurations.

Node.js v8.x use OpenSSL v1.0.2 and Node.js v10.x and v12.x both use OpenSSL

v1.1.1, therefore all active release lines are impacted by this update.

At this stage, due to embargo, the exact nature of these defects is uncertain

as well as the impact they will have on Node.js users.

After assessing the impact on Node.js, it will be decided whether the issues

fixed require immediate security releases of Node.js, or whether they can be

included in the normally scheduled updates.

Please monitor the **nodejs-sec** Google Group for updates, including a

decision within 24 hours after the OpenSSL release regarding release timing,

and full details of the defects upon eventual release:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/nodejs-sec

### Contact and future updates

The current Node.js security policy can be found at <https://nodejs.org/en/security/>,

including information on how to report a vulnerability in Node.js.

Subscribe to the low-volume announcement-only **nodejs-sec** mailing list at

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/nodejs-sec to stay up to date on

security vulnerabilities and security-related releases of Node.js and the

projects maintained in the

[nodejs GitHub organisation](https://github.com/nodejs).

[Sam Roberts]

### Summary

The OpenSSL Security releases of September 10th, 2019 do not affect Node.js.

### Analysis

Our assessment of the security advisory is:

- ECDSA remote timing attack (CVE-2019-1547)

  Not affected. Node supports only named curves for ECDSA signing.

- Fork Protection (CVE-2019-1549)

  Not affected. Node.js always call `exec()` after `fork()` so will not

  duplicate the PRNG state in the forked process.

- Padding Oracle in `PKCS7_dataDecode` and `CMS_decrypt_set1_pkey` (CVE-2019-1563)

  Not affected. Node does not support PCKS7 and CMS.

Given this assessment, the OpenSSL updates will be treated as non-security

patch updates, and will come out in the regularly scheduled updates to

supported release lines.

### Acknowledgements

Thanks to Shigeki Ohtsu for his rapid analysis

of the OpenSSL security advisory.

### Contact and future updates

The current Node.js security policy can be found at <https://nodejs.org/en/security/>,

including information on how to report a vulnerability in Node.js.

Subscribe to the low-volume announcement-only **nodejs-sec** mailing list at

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/nodejs-sec to stay up to date on

security vulnerabilities and security-related releases of Node.js and the

projects maintained in the

nodejs GitHub organisation.

The original announcement is below: