Diffie-Hellman Key Agreement Protocol Exploit in Mozilla's TLS and SSH Implementations

CVE-2022-40735

What is CVE-2022-40735?

The Diffie-Hellman Key Agreement Protocol may permit the use of excessively long exponents, leading to resource-intensive calculations that could exhaust server capacities. This inefficiency arises from the potential to utilize shorter exponents when subgroup constraints are adequate, resulting in less computationally expensive operations. The exploitation scenarios can vary based on the underlying protocol—in particular, TLS and SSH could experience availability issues due to excessive modular exponentiation demands. Attackers may also leverage this vulnerability in conjunction with CVE-2002-20001, amplifying the potential impact on affected systems.

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