Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessAuthenticate to Krill with low-privilege account
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DeliveryCapture encrypted login-session tokens across a Krill restart
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ExploitExploit reused key-nonce keystream (counter reset to 0)
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ExecutionRecover or forge a session token
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ImpactHijack a privileged Krill session
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A04:2025 - Cryptographic Failures
ASVS 5.0
V11 - Cryptography Nonce/key pair uniqueness
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| Exploitation Conditions | The attacker must exploit the specific condition stated in the advisory: Krill builds each login-session token's encryption nonce from a counter that is reset to 0 on every Krill restart, so the same (key, nonce) pair encrypts multiple tokens after each restart. Concrete prerequisites: (1) low-privilege authenticated access to the Krill login flow to be issued and capture at least one encrypted session token (PR:L); (2) the ability to collect ciphertexts that span one or more restarts, since the nonce reuse only manifests once Krill restarts; and (3) the cryptanalytic effort to leverage the shared keystream to recover or forge token plaintext. Limiting factors that reduce realistic risk below the raw 8.4: exploitation requires authentication (not an anonymous remote attacker), it is high-complexity (AC:H), and it depends on Krill restart events the attacker cannot directly trigger; how the recovered/forged token is weaponized is not detailed in the available sources. |
| Impact | Signals are moderately consistent but incomplete. The CVSS 3.1 vector (AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:L, base 8.4) describes a network-reachable but high-complexity flaw that still requires low-privilege authenticated access, with a scope change reflecting that a compromise of the session-crypto layer can affect other principals in the Krill instance. The core defect is a cryptographic one: a login-session token nonce derived from a counter reset to 0 on every Krill restart, causing (key, nonce) reuse (CWE-323) - a genuine weakness class, not merely a paper-high score. However, the real-world urgency signals are soft: there is no CISA KEV listing, no EPSS probability supplied in the input, and no exploit code or PoC reference provided, so exploitation is no public exploit identified at time of analysis. The vuln.today decision label is 'this_week' (not act_now/emergency), which fits a serious authentication-integrity bug that is nonetheless gated by AC:H and authentication. Net: treat as a real, patch-this-week priority for anyone running Krill, but note the absence of EPSS/KEV/PoC means there is no evidence of active or imminent widespread exploitation - the AC:H gating (dependence on restarts and cross-restart ciphertext capture) makes opportunistic mass exploitation unlikely. The mechanism (nonce reuse on restart) is confirmed by the description; the exact exploitation path to token recovery/forgery is not spelled out in the available sources. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | A low-privileged authenticated user of a Krill instance captures the encrypted login-session tokens it is issued, then waits for (or observes) a Krill restart, after which the nonce counter resets to 0 and the same key/nonce keystream is reused to encrypt further tokens. By combining ciphertexts that share the reused keystream, the attacker aims to recover session-token plaintext or forge a token for a higher-privileged session. Exploitation is remote (AV:N) but high-complexity (AC:H) and depends on a restart the attacker does not control; no public exploit code was identified in the provided data. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Nov 02, 2026
Nonce reuse in Krill's login-session token encryption lets an attacker who captures multiple encrypted tokens across Krill restarts exploit a repeated (key, nonce) pair to recover or forge session-token plaintext. The flaw stems from a nonce counter that resets to zero on every restart, so deployments that restart Krill periodically accumulate ciphertexts encrypted under identical key/nonce combinations. Exploitation is not anonymous: it requires low-privilege authenticated access to the login flow, several restarts the attacker cannot directly trigger, and cryptanalytic effort (AC:H), so realistic risk sits below the raw 8.4 score; no public exploit code or active exploitation was identified at time of analysis, and the vuln.today decision label is this_week.
RemediationAI
No fixed version is identified in the available data, so the authoritative remediation guidance is the NLnet Labs advisory at https://www.nlnetlabs.nl/downloads/krill/CVE-2026-109140.txt, which should be checked for the patched release line; the CPE in this record is an unversioned wildcard and cannot be used to confirm which builds are fixed. Until a patched build is confirmed for your release, note that the reuse mechanism is triggered by Krill restarts, so the exposure window grows with restart frequency - reducing unnecessary restarts limits how many duplicate nonce cycles are produced, but this is only a reduction in exposure, not a fix, and restarts cannot be avoided indefinitely for a service that needs upgrades. Because exploitation requires an attacker to hold low-privilege authenticated access to the login flow and to accumulate captured session tokens across those restarts, restricting the Krill login and API surface to trusted administrative networks reduces the pool of parties able to capture ciphertexts, at the cost of narrowing legitimate administrator reachability and requiring a proxy or VPN tier. The supplied sources do not describe a vendor-endorsed configuration workaround, so no further control should be treated as equivalent to installing a fixed release once one is published.
Affected VersionsENISA
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Technical ContextAI · show details
Krill is NLnet Labs' RPKI certificate authority and publication server implementation, and the affected component is its web login-session token handling. The root cause is CWE-323 (Reusing a Nonce, Key Pair in Encryption): the nonce used to encrypt each session token is derived from a counter, and that counter is reinitialized to 0 whenever the Krill process restarts. Consequently, after each restart the encryption routine walks the same nonce sequence again under the same key, so distinct session tokens can be encrypted with an identical (key, nonce) pair. Nonce reuse in any keystream-based or counter-derived encryption construction collapses the confidentiality guarantee because plaintext relationships become recoverable, and it can also enable forgery of tokens the server will accept; the supplied sources do not name the specific cipher or AEAD mode, and the exact weaponization path from recovered keystream to a usable forged token is not described in the available sources. The CVSS vector (AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:L) reflects that a network-reachable, authenticated low-privilege user must gather ciphertexts spanning one or more restarts and perform cryptanalysis, while the scope change reflects impact extending beyond the vulnerable component to the session-trust boundary. The CPE cpe:2.3:a:nlnet_labs:krill:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* records no version bounds, so the affected range should be taken from the NLnet Labs advisory rather than inferred here.
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Severity by source
AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:L
Remote but requires an authenticated low-priv account (PR:L) and cross-restart ciphertext capture the attacker cannot control (AC:H); token recovery/forgery breaks confidentiality and integrity of sessions (C:H/I:H, S:C), with limited downstream availability impact (A:L).
Primary rating from Vendor (NLnet Labs).
CVSS VectorVendor: NLnet Labs
DescriptionCVE.org
The vulnerability is that Krill encrypts every login-session token with a nonce built from a counter that is reset to 0 on every Krill restart, so the same (key, nonce) pair is used again after each restart.
Executive ViewAI
A high-severity cryptographic flaw in Krill, the RPKI certificate authority used to secure internet routing, could allow an authenticated low-privilege attacker to recover or forge login session tokens after multiple service restarts. This puts the integrity of RPKI operations at risk, potentially enabling unauthorized route announcements or disruptions. Leadership should prioritize remediation because Krill underpins trust in BGP routing and any compromise could have wide-reaching internet routing consequences.
No vendor-released patch identified at time of analysis. Interim mitigations include: restricting access to the Krill login interface to trusted IP ranges, minimizing restarts to reduce nonce reuse exposure, monitoring for anomalous authentication activity, and enforcing multi-factor authentication where possible.
Threat Intelligence Overview
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
Information disclosure occurs when an application unintentionally exposes sensitive data that aids attackers in reconnaissance or directly compromises security.
Authorization bypass in NLnet Labs Krill lets an authenticated Krill operator assert an arbitrary child identity during
An authorization bypass in NLnet Labs Krill allows an account whose role is deliberately scoped to a subset of CAs (cas
NLnet Labs Krill supports direct access to the RRDP repository content through its built-in web server at the "/rrdp" en
EUVD-2026-115255
GHSA-7mpx-94gm-vm7j
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
Exploit-DB