CVE-2014-9742
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedThe Miller-Rabin primality check in Botan before 1.10.8 and 1.11.x before 1.11.9 improperly uses a single random base, which makes it easier for remote attackers to defeat cryptographic protection mechanisms via a DH group.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceThe Miller-Rabin primality check in the Botan cryptographic library uses only a single random base instead of the cryptographically required multiple bases, significantly reducing its ability to reliably detect composite numbers. This weakness allows attackers to potentially defeat cryptographic protections in Diffie-Hellman groups by exploiting the reduced probability of detecting non-prime DH parameters.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data<= 1.10.7= 1.11.0= 1.11.1= 1.11.2= 1.11.3= 1.11.4= 1.11.5= 1.11.6= 1.11.7= 1.11.8CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify Botan library versionLocate the installed Botan library and check its version string, typically found in library metadata, headers, or by querying the library binary for version informationAffected if version is 1.10.7 or earlier, or between 1.11.0 and 1.11.8 inclusive
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Determine if Diffie-Hellman is usedReview application code and configuration to identify if Botan is used for DH key exchange or DH group parameter generationAffected if the application uses Botan for any Diffie-Hellman operations, including TLS DH cipher suites or custom DH group generation
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Inspect Miller-Rabin implementationExamine the Botan source or binary for the mp_miller_rabin function in the bigint module; check if it iterates over multiple random bases or only a single baseAffected if the primality test implementation uses only one iteration with a single random base rather than performing multiple independent tests
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Check for DH parameter validationReview how DH parameters are validated before use; verify if the application relies on Botan's built-in primality testing for imported or generated DH groupsAffected if the application accepts or generates DH parameters without verifying they were tested with cryptographically appropriate multi-base primality checking
You are affected if your deployed Botan library version falls within the vulnerable range AND your system uses Botan for Diffie-Hellman key exchange or DH parameter generation.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpgrade Botan to version 1.10.8 or 1.11.9 or later, which implement the correct multi-base Miller-Rabin primality testing. Identify all deployments using vulnerable versions and verify DH group generation now uses proper primality testing.
- Consultation6.0 h
- Implementation12.0 h
- Testing10.0 h
- Review / QA8.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2014-9742 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2014-9742 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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