Vulnerability Note VU#165099

cryptcat does not encrypt data communications when -e command argument is used

Overview

With certain options used, cryptcat does not encrypt network connections as expected.

I. Description

Cryptcat is an enhanced version of netcat that adds twofish encryption.

If cryptcat is started in listen (server) mode binding a shell to a network port, cryptcat fails to enable encryption. Without encryption enabled on the server, cryptcat clients will not be able to connect. Furthermore, netcat clients can connect to the server port and communicate without encryption.

II. Impact

Users may open unencrypted ports on the server with the assumption that any connections to that port will be encrypted by cryptcat.

III. Solution

The CERT/CC is currently unaware of a practical solution to this problem.

None.

Systems Affected

Vendor	Status	Date Notified	Date Updated
Farm9	Unknown	11-Dec-2001

References

http://farm9.com/content/Free_Tools/Cryptcat

Credit

Thanks to Eric Sheesley for reporting this vulnerability.

This document was written by Shawn Van Ittersum.

Other Information

Date Public:	2002-03-02
Date First Published:	2002-03-02
Date Last Updated:	2004-02-23
CERT Advisory:
CVE-ID(s):
NVD-ID(s):
US-CERT Technical Alerts:
Metric:	0.09
Document Revision:	13

If you have feedback, comments, or additional information about this vulnerability, please send us email.

Get Adobe Reader