Public key confusion in third party block in Biscuit
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- High
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- High
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · Low · None
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA.
Summary
Biscuit is an authorization token with decentralized verification, offline attenuation and strong security policy enforcement based on a logic language. Third-party blocks can be generated without transferring the whole token to the third-party authority. Instead, a `ThirdPartyBlock` request can be sent, providing only the necessary info to generate a third-party block and to sign it: 1. the public key of the previous block (used in the signature), 2. the public keys part of the token symbol table (for public key interning in datalog expressions). A third-part block request forged by a malicious user can trick the third-party authority into generating datalog trusting the wrong keypair. Tokens with third-party blocks containing `trusted` annotations generated through a third party block request. This has been addressed in version 4 of the specification. Users are advised to update their implementations to conform. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| biscuit-auth | biscuit | before 4 | 4 | Patch available | CNA |
- biscuit Vendorbiscuit-auth Affected before 4 Fixed in 4 Patch available CNA
Remediation
- Fix · CNA biscuit (biscuit-auth) Fixed in 4
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2024-42350
References
More biscuit-auth vulnerabilities
- TI-2022-13098 Signature forgery in Biscuit CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2024-27971 biscuit-rust vulnerable to public key confusion in third party block CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 6.4
- TI-2024-27970 biscuit-java vulnerable to public key confusion in third party block CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 5.0
Sources
This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences