Public bug reported:
[IMPACT]
firefox is not a FIPS certified library. firefox uses bundled nss and on a
machine running FIPS enabled kernel, nss by default goes into FIPS mode if
/proc/sys/crypto/fips_enabled=1. This is an untested configuration and since
libnss3 is not a certified library we propose disabling reading the
'fips_enabled' flag and therefore switching the library automatically into FIPS
mode. A FIPS customer reported firefox crash on a FIPS enabled system and
strace showed it was repeatedly trying to read the fips_enabled flag from the
bundled nss before crashing.
The proposed patch disables reading the /proc/sys/crypto/fips_enabled
flag. The users of the library however can force nss into FIPS mode via
an environment variable. We plan to leave it as is so as not to regress
existing users who may be using it.
The issue impacts firefox versions in eoan, disco, bionic and xenial.
lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu Eoan Ermine (development branch)
Release: 19.10
Version: 2:3.45-1ubuntu1
lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu Disco Dingo
Release: 19.04
Version: 2:3.42-1ubuntu2
lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu Bionic Beaver
Release: 18.04
Version: 2:3.35-2ubuntu2.3
lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS
Release: 16.04
Version: 2:3.28.4-0ubuntu0.16.04
[FIX]
This fix proposes to disable bundled nss in firefox reading
proc/sys/crypto/fips_enabled. We only want fips certified modules reading this
file and running in fips mode. firefox nss is not one of our fips certified
modules, so should not be reading this along with our fips certified modules to
determine whether to run in fips mode.
Users who do want to run the library in FIPS mode can do so by using the
environment variable "NSS_FIPS". We propose to leave it as is so as not
to regress anyone using this. The user who is using this option should
be doing so with the awareness.
[TEST]
Tested on a xenial and bionic desktop ISO running FIPS enabled kernel and in
FIPS mode. With the patch fix no crashes were observed when launching firefox
browser.
Without the patch fix, firefox crashes.
Tested on a xenial and bionic desktop ISO running non-FIPS generic
kernel. With the patch fix, firefox worked as expected and no changes
were observed.
[REGRESSION POTENTIAL]
The regression potential for this is small. A FIPS kernel is required to
create /proc/sys/crypto/fips_enabled and it is not available in the standard
Ubuntu archive. For users forcing FIPS through environment variable, nothing
has changed.
** Affects: firefox (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1843044
Title:
firefox crash on a FIPS enabled machine
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