# CVE-2014-1491: Weak cryptography in n/a

> Remote attackers can bypass cryptographic protections in ticket handling due to improper restriction of Diffie-Hellman public values in the NSS library.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.3 (`AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 6 Feb 2014
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2014-1491, GHSA-v496-3mj8-fpc6, RHSA-2014:0979

## What is CVE-2014-1491?

CVE-2014-1491 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 6 Feb 2014. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Mozilla Network Security Services (NSS) before 3.15.4, as used in Mozilla Firefox before 27.0, Firefox ESR 24.x before 24.3, Thunderbird before 24.3, SeaMonkey before 2.24, and other products, does not properly restrict public values in Diffie-Hellman key exchanges, which makes it easier for remote attackers to bypass cryptographic protection mechanisms in ticket handling by leveraging use of a certain value.

Weakness: CWE-326 (Inadequate Encryption Strength)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2014-1491?

It affects 13 products.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `rhev-hypervisor6` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:6::hypervisor | All versions | 0:6.5-20140725.0.el6ev |

Products: Canonical Ubuntu Linux, Debian Debian Linux, Fedoraproject Fedora, Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Network Security Services, Mozilla Seamonkey, Mozilla Thunderbird, Opensuse Opensuse, Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center, Oracle Vm Server, Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop, Suse Linux Enterprise Server, Suse Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit.

## How do I fix CVE-2014-1491?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2014-1491 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2014-1491 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Canonical Ubuntu Linux

- [CVE-2020-11651](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-11651/): SaltStack Salt Authentication Bypass (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2020-7247](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-7247/): OpenSMTPD Remote Code Execution (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2019-16928](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-16928/): Exim Out-of-bounds Write (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2018-6789](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-6789/): Exim Buffer Overflow (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2015-2590](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-2590/): Oracle Java SE and Java SE Embedded Remote Code Execution (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2014-1491 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2014-1491 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 6 Feb 2014. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2014-1491 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Canonical Ubuntu Linux. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-1491/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-1491/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2014-1491
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2014-1491
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2014-1491

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-1491/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.