Hello! We are pleased to announce the availability of a new stable GnuPG-1 release: Version 1.4.14. This is a *security fix* release and all users of GnuPG < 2.0 are advised to updated to this version. See below for the impact of the problem. For users of GnuPG >= 2.0 a new version of Libgcrypt (1.5.3) has been released which fixes the problem for them. The GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG) is GNU's tool for secure communication and data storage. It is a complete and free replacement of PGP and can be used to encrypt data and to create digital signatures. It includes an advanced key management facility, smartcard support and is compliant with the OpenPGP Internet standard as described by RFC-4880. Note that this version is from the GnuPG-1 series and thus smaller than those from the GnuPG-2 series, easier to build, and also better portable to ancient platforms. In contrast to GnuPG-2 (e.g version 2.0.20) it comes with no support for S/MIME, Secure Shell, or other tools useful for desktop environments. Fortunately you may install both versions alongside on the same system without any conflict. What's New ========== * Mitigate the Yarom/Falkner flush+reload side-channel attack on RSA secret keys. See <http://eprint.iacr.org/2013/448>. * Fixed IDEA for big-endian CPUs * Improved the diagnostics for failed keyserver lockups. * Minor bug and portability fixes. Impact of the Cache Side-Channel Attack ====================================== Here is the abstract from the Yarom and Falkner paper: Flush+Reload is a cache side-channel attack that monitors access to data in shared pages. In this paper we demonstrate how to use the attack to extract private encryption keys from GnuPG. The high resolution and low noise of the Flush+Reload attack enables a spy program to recover over 98% of the bits of the private key in a single decryption or signing round. Unlike previous attacks, the attack targets the last level L3 cache. Consequently, the spy program and the victim do not need to share the execution core of the CPU. The attack is not limited to a traditional OS and can be used in a virtualised environment, where it can attack programs executing in a different VM. I general the use of private keys on multi-user machines is imminent dangerous due to a variety of possibly attacks. Example for such attacks are locally exploitable vulnerabilities and all kind of side channel attacks which can't be mitigated by the operating system. Thus the best advise is to use a private key only on a fully trusted machine; i.e. a machine with full control over the software which may run on it. However, it is common to put private keys on servers for example to process encrypted mail. If the server hardware is shared with other users it is thus important to update GnuPG so to avoid the described attack. On a pure desktop machine, with only one user, mounting this attack is probably not effective because there are easier ways to gain access to the machine and thus the keys. For best protection of private keys, smartcards are often the best choice. Getting the Software =================== First of all, decide whether you really need GnuPG version 1.4.x - most users are better off with the modern GnuPG 2.0.x version. Then follow the instructions found at http://www.gnupg.org/download/ or read on: GnuPG 1.4.14 may be downloaded from one of the GnuPG mirror sites or direct from ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/ . The list of mirrors can be found at http://www.gnupg.org/mirrors.html . Note, that GnuPG is not available at ftp.gnu.org. On the mirrors you should find the following files in the *gnupg* directory: gnupg-1.4.14.tar.bz2 (3601k) gnupg-1.4.14.tar.bz2.sig GnuPG source compressed using BZIP2 and OpenPGP signature. gnupg-1.4.14.tar.gz (4967k) gnupg-1.4.14.tar.gz.sig GnuPG source compressed using GZIP and OpenPGP signature. gnupg-1.4.13-1.4.14.diff.bz2 (14k) A patch file to upgrade a 1.4.13 GnuPG source tree. This patch does not include updates of the language files. Select one of them. To shorten the download time, you probably want to get the BZIP2 compressed file. Please try another mirror if exceptional your mirror is not yet up to date. In the *binary* directory, you should find these files: gnupg-w32cli-1.4.14.exe (1567k) gnupg-w32cli-1.4.14.exe.sig GnuPG compiled for Microsoft Windows and OpenPGP signature. This is a command line only version; the source files are the same as given above. Note, that this is a minimal installer and unless you are just in need for the gpg binary, you are better off using the full featured installer at http://www.gpg4win.org . Checking the Integrity ===================== In order to check that the version of GnuPG which you are going to install is an original and unmodified one, you can do it in one of the following ways: * If you already have a trusted version of GnuPG installed, you can simply check the supplied signature. For example to check the signature of the file gnupg-1.4.14.tar.bz2 you would use this command: gpg --verify gnupg-1.4.14.tar.bz2.sig This checks whether the signature file matches the source file. You should see a message indicating that the signature is good and made by that signing key. Make sure that you have the right key, either by checking the fingerprint of that key with other sources or by checking that the key has been signed by a trustworthy other key. Note, that you can retrieve the signing key using the command finger wk ,at' g10code.com | gpg --import or using a keyserver like gpg --recv-key 4F25E3B6 The distribution key 4F25E3B6 is signed by the well known key 1E42B367. If you get an key expired message, you should retrieve a fresh copy as the expiration date might have been prolonged. NEVER USE A GNUPG VERSION YOU JUST DOWNLOADED TO CHECK THE INTEGRITY OF THE SOURCE - USE AN EXISTING GNUPG INSTALLATION! * If you are not able to use an old version of GnuPG, you have to verify the SHA-1 checksum. Assuming you downloaded the file gnupg-1.4.14.tar.bz2, you would run the sha1sum command like this: sha1sum gnupg-1.4.14.tar.bz2 and check that the output matches the first line from the following list: 6202181ba2871fb3448c751a573b4ae0c4770806 gnupg-1.4.14.tar.bz2 607691dd42a24f39fd74dded20375c4c0bc47d2c gnupg-1.4.14.tar.gz e7623a6b8b6de00d3788246d3e51fde1ce7b5897 gnupg-1.4.13-1.4.14.diff.bz2 ac9e89240ce37810febf59e28db655d1271b2fea gnupg-w32cli-1.4.14.exe Internationalization =================== GnuPG comes with support for 29 languages. The Chinese (Simple and Traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Ukrainian, and Turkish translations are close to be complete. Support ====== A listing with commercial support offers for GnuPG is available at: http://www.gnupg.org/service.html The driving force behind the development of GnuPG is the company of its principal author, Werner Koch. Maintenance and improvement of GnuPG and related software take up a most of their resources. To allow them continue their work they ask to either purchase a support contract, engage them for custom enhancements, or to donate money: http://g10code.com/gnupg-donation.html Thanks ===== We have to thank all the people who helped with this release, be it testing, coding, translating, suggesting, auditing, donating money, spreading the word, or answering questions on the mailing lists. Thanks to Yoval Yarom for providing the paper in advance and testing the fix. Happy Hacking, The GnuPG Team (David, Werner and the other contributors) -- Die Gedanken sind frei. Ausnahmen regelt ein Bundesgesetz. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 204 bytes Desc: not available URL: </pipermail/attachments/20130725/dd174b7d/attachment.sig>