Title: Expect mkpasswd Biased Random Number Generation Vulnerability
Severity: MODERATE
Description:
The 'mkpasswd' password generation script that ships with expect contains a biased random number generation bug.
The script uses its own random number generator and seeds it with a process id. In 'default' mode, where >= 2 lowercase characters, >= 2 uppercase characters, >= 2 digits, and three other characters are generated, a maximum of 32768 possibilities exist. On systems which further limit the process id range, this value is even lower.
As a result, only a small set of possible passwords are generated; making several attacks against the passwords trivial to perform.
Affected Products:
- Don Libes Expect 5.2.8
- RedHat Linux 6.2.0
- RedHat Linux 7.0.0
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