CVE-2026-25998
AES-CTR Key Reuse in strongMan Allows Credential Decryption
Publication date: 2026-02-19
Last updated on: 2026-02-23
Assigner: GitHub, Inc.
Description
Description
CVSS Scores
EPSS Scores
| Probability: | |
| Percentile: |
Meta Information
Affected Vendors & Products
| Vendor | Product | Version / Range |
|---|---|---|
| strongswan | strongman | 0.1.0 |
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
| CWE ID | Description |
|---|---|
| CWE-1204 | The product uses a cryptographic primitive that uses an Initialization Vector (IV), but the product does not generate IVs that are sufficiently unpredictable or unique according to the expected cryptographic requirements for that primitive. |
| CWE-323 | Nonces should be used for the present occasion and only once. |
Attack-Flow Graph
AI Powered Q&A
Can you explain this vulnerability to me?
The vulnerability in strongMan, a management interface for strongSwan VPN, arises from how it encrypts credentials stored in its database. It used AES in CTR mode with a global database key but failed to generate unique initialization vectors (IVs) for each encrypted field. This caused every database field to be encrypted with the same key stream.
Because certificates (which are public) are also encrypted this way, an attacker with database access can recover a large part of the key stream by analyzing the encrypted certificates. This enables the attacker to decrypt other sensitive credentials such as ECDSA private keys and EAP secrets, which are shorter and more vulnerable.
The issue is fixed in version 0.2.0 by switching to AES-GCM-SIV encryption with a random nonce and individually derived encryption keys for each value, along with database migrations to re-encrypt all credentials.
How can this vulnerability impact me? :
If an attacker gains access to the database, they can exploit this vulnerability to decrypt sensitive credentials stored by strongMan, including private keys and EAP secrets.
This can lead to unauthorized access to VPN connections, impersonation, and potential compromise of secure communications protected by these credentials.
How does this vulnerability affect compliance with common standards and regulations (like GDPR, HIPAA)?:
I don't know
How can this vulnerability be detected on my network or system? Can you suggest some commands?
I don't know
What immediate steps should I take to mitigate this vulnerability?
To mitigate this vulnerability, upgrade strongMan to version 0.2.0 or later.
Version 0.2.0 fixes the issue by switching to AES-GCM-SIV encryption with a random nonce and an individually derived encryption key for each encrypted value.
Additionally, apply the provided database migrations to automatically re-encrypt all credentials securely.