It was found that NSS is vulnerable to RSA key generation cache timing side channel attacks. An attacker with sufficient access to mount cache timing attacks during the RSA key generation process could recover the private key.
OpenShift 4.x only packages nss-altfiles and has been confirmed to *not* share any of the vulnerable signature code: - nss-altfiles only reads information from files in the same format as /etc/passwd and /etc/group.
Upstream commit: https://hg.mozilla.org/projects/nss/rev/699541a7793bbe9b20f1d73dc49e25c6054aa4c1
External References: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Projects/NSS/NSS_3.53.1_release_notes
Created nss tracking bugs for this issue: Affects: fedora-all [bug 1847931]
Statement: A timing attack was found in the way NSS generated RSA keys. A man-in-the-middle attacker could use this attack during RSA key generation to recover the private key. This attack is only feasible when the attacker is local to the machine or in certain cross-VM scenarios where the signature is being generated. Attacks over the network or via the internet are not feasible.
Mitigation: Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options do not meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base or stability.
Upstream bug: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1631597
This issue has been addressed in the following products: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Via RHSA-2020:3280 https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2020:3280
This bug is now closed. Further updates for individual products will be reflected on the CVE page(s): https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/cve-2020-12402
This issue has been addressed in the following products: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Via RHSA-2020:4076 https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2020:4076
Acknowledgments: Name: the Mozilla Project Upstream: Sohaib ul Hassan (NISEC, Tampere University), Iaroslav Gridin (NISEC, Tampere University), Ignacio M. Delgado-Lozano (NISEC, Tampere University), Cesar Pereida (NISEC, Tampere University), Jesús-Javier Chi-Domínguez (NISEC, Tampere University), Alejandro Cabrera Aldaya (NISEC, Tampere University), Billy Bob Brumley (NISEC, Tampere University)