Description
In RNP version 0.18.0 a refactoring regression causes the symmetric session key used for Public-Key Encrypted Session Key (PKESK) packets to be left uninitialized except for zeroing, resulting in it always being an all-zero byte array.
Any data encrypted using public-key encryption in this release can be decrypted trivially by supplying an all-zero session key, fully compromising confidentiality.
The vulnerability affects only public key encryption (PKESK packets). Passphrase-based encryption (SKESK packets) is not affected.
Root cause: Vulnerable session key buffer used in PKESK packet generation.
The defect was introduced in commit `7bd9a8dc356aae756b40755be76d36205b6b161a` where initialization logic inside `encrypted_build_skesk()` only randomized the key for the SKESK path and omitted it for the PKESK path.
Metrics
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:NWeakness enumeration
Affected software
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| Ribose | RNP | 0.18.0 |
References
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/cve-2025-13402
- https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/rnp
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2415863
- https://github.com/rnpgp/rnp/commit/7bd9a8dc356aae756b40755be76d36205b6b161a
- https://github.com/rnpgp/rnp/releases/tag/v0.18.1
- https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/rnp
- https://open.ribose.com/advisories/ra-2025-11-20/
- https://packages.gentoo.org/packages/dev-util/librnp
Timeline
- Published
- Nov 21, 2025
- Last modified
- Oct 8, 2026
- NVD status
- Deferred