strongMan is a management interface for strongSwan, an OpenSource IPsec-based VPN. When storing credentials in the database (private keys, EAP secrets), strongMan encrypts the corresponding database fields. So far it used AES in CTR mode with a global database key. Together with an initialization vector (IV), a key stream is generated to encrypt the data in the database fields. But because strongMan did not generate individual IVs, every database field was encrypted using the same key stream. An attacker that has access to the database can use this to recover the encrypted credentials. In particular, because certificates, which have to be considered public information, are also encrypted using the same mechanism, an attacker can directly recover a large chunk of the key stream, which allows them to decrypt basically all other secrets especially ECDSA private keys and EAP secrets, which are usually a lot shorter. Version 0.2.0 fixes the issue by switching to AES-GCM-SIV encryption with a random nonce and an individually derived encryption key, using HKDF, for each encrypted value. Database migrations are provided to automatically re-encrypt all credentials.
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Affected Vendors & Products
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Fixes
Solution
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Workaround
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References
History
Thu, 19 Feb 2026 16:30:00 +0000
| Type | Values Removed | Values Added |
|---|---|---|
| Description | strongMan is a management interface for strongSwan, an OpenSource IPsec-based VPN. When storing credentials in the database (private keys, EAP secrets), strongMan encrypts the corresponding database fields. So far it used AES in CTR mode with a global database key. Together with an initialization vector (IV), a key stream is generated to encrypt the data in the database fields. But because strongMan did not generate individual IVs, every database field was encrypted using the same key stream. An attacker that has access to the database can use this to recover the encrypted credentials. In particular, because certificates, which have to be considered public information, are also encrypted using the same mechanism, an attacker can directly recover a large chunk of the key stream, which allows them to decrypt basically all other secrets especially ECDSA private keys and EAP secrets, which are usually a lot shorter. Version 0.2.0 fixes the issue by switching to AES-GCM-SIV encryption with a random nonce and an individually derived encryption key, using HKDF, for each encrypted value. Database migrations are provided to automatically re-encrypt all credentials. | |
| Title | strongMan vulnerable to private credential recovery due to key and counter reuse | |
| Weaknesses | CWE-1204 CWE-323 |
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cvssV4_0
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MITRE
Status: PUBLISHED
Assigner: GitHub_M
Published:
Updated: 2026-02-19T15:53:30.113Z
Reserved: 2026-02-09T17:41:55.859Z
Link: CVE-2026-25998
Vulnrichment
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NVD
Status : Received
Published: 2026-02-19T17:24:50.127
Modified: 2026-02-19T17:24:50.127
Link: CVE-2026-25998
Redhat
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OpenCVE Enrichment
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