[Pkg-openssl-devel] Bug#533365: openssl: cannot remove short password from key

[Andreas Schildbach]

Package: openssl
Version: 0.9.8g-15+lenny1
Severity: important

I have got an RSA key which is encrypted (Proc-Type: 4,ENCRYPTED) using a password of only one character.
Unfortunately, OpenSSL is not able to remove the Password with the standard

openssl rsa -in my.key -out my.key.insecure

Error:

29913:error:28069065:lib(40):UI_set_result:result too small:ui_lib.c:849:You must type in 4 to 8191 characters

A forced check like this is questionable, and in the case of not generating, but just *using* (e.g. decrypting) a password it is totally unacceptable.
OpenSSL renders my private key unusable.

Proposal for fixing this issue: remove password size/quality checks for decrypting operations.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 5.0.1
  APT prefers stable
  APT policy: (500, 'stable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.26-2-686 (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages openssl depends on:
ii  libc6                  2.7-18            GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libssl0.9.8            0.9.8g-15+lenny1  SSL shared libraries
ii  zlib1g                 1:1.2.3.3.dfsg-12 compression library - runtime

openssl recommends no packages.

Versions of packages openssl suggests:
ii  ca-certificates               20080809   Common CA certificates

-- no debconf information