Timing Attack Affecting http-signature package, versions <1.0.0
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Test your applications- Snyk ID npm:http-signature:20150122
- published 28 Jun 2017
- disclosed 21 Jan 2015
- credit Alok Menghrajani
How to fix?
Upgrade http-signature to version 1.0.0 or higher.
Overview
http-signature is a reference implementation of Joyent's HTTP Signature scheme.
Affected versions of the package are vulnerable to Timing Attacks due to time-variable comparison of signatures.
The library implemented a character to character comparison, similar to the built-in string comparison mechanism, ===, and not a time constant string comparison. As a result, the comparison will fail faster when the first characters in the signature are incorrect.
An attacker can use this difference to perform a timing attack, essentially allowing them to guess the signature one character at a time.
You can read more about timing attacks in Node.js on the Snyk blog.