Developers of Git GUI client GitKraken have addressed a vulnerability resulting in the generation of weak SSH keys, and they are prompting users to revoke and renew their keys.
Discovered in the open source library that the Git GUI client uses for SSH key generation, the issue affects all keys issued using versions 7.6.x, 7.7.x, and 8.0.0 of GitKraken.
The security hole was identified in late September and was addressed with the release of GitKraken version 8.0.1. The SSH key generation library was replaced with a new one.
Due to the presence of the vulnerability in multiple versions of GitKraken, users are advised to regenerate their SSH keys even if they have already updated to the patched version.
“We are not aware of any accounts being compromised due to this flaw. We will continue to work toward the highest security standards possible for all of our users,” the GitKraken team said.
Git hosting service providers Azure DevOps, Bitbucket, GitHub, and GitLab have been alerted of the issue, so that the weak public keys in use could be revoked. The platforms have already taken the necessary steps to address the issue.
GitHub on Monday announced that it has revoked the weak SSH keys generated using the GitKraken client, as well as “other potentially weak keys created by other clients that may have used the same vulnerable dependency.”
The code hosting service also added new protections to ensure that vulnerable versions of GitKraken can’t add new weak keys. However, other weakly-generated keys that are in use on GitHub.com might come from additional third-party clients that use the vulnerable library.
“The nature of this vulnerability prevents us from identifying all possible weak SSH keys produced by this library and vulnerable clients that used it. Out of an abundance of caution, we’ve also revoked other potentially weak keys associated with these scenarios and blocked their use,” GitHub says.
The platform has already notified affected users, prompting them to regenerate their keys. The same did GitLab, which also announced that it blocked known weak keys.
“[The weak keys] could enable an attacker to gain unauthorized access to an account or repositories on GitLab.com or a self-managed instance,” GitLab said, adding that it has no evidence that GitLab.com or projects that use GitKraken might have been compromised.
Bitbucket Cloud too revoked identified weak keys and prompted users to generate new keys, adding that no evidence of compromise was found.
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