Vulnerability Note VU#166743
Das U-Boot AES-CBC encryption implementation contains multiple vulnerabilities

Das U-Boot is a device bootloader that can read its configuration from an AES encrypted file. For devices utilizing this environment encryption mode, U-Boot’s use of a zero initialization vector and improper handling of an error condition may allow attacks against the underlying cryptographic implementation and allow an attacker to decrypt the data.Das U-Boot’s AES-CBC encryption feature uses a zero (0) initialization vector. This allows an attacker to perform dictionary attacks on encrypted data produced by Das U-Boot to learn information about the encrypted data. Devices that make use of Das U-Boot’s AES-CBC encryption feature using environment encryption (i.e., setting the configuration parameter CONFIG_ENV_AES=y) read environment variables from disk as the encrypted disk image is processed. An attacker with physical access to the device can manipulate the encrypted environment data to include a crafted two-byte sequence which triggers an error in environment variable parsing. This error condition is improperly handled by Das U-Boot, resulting in an immediate process termination with a debugging message. The immediate failure can be used as an oracle for a Vaudenay-style timing attack on the cryptography, allowing a dedicated attacker to decrypt and potentially modify the contents of the device. An attacker with physical access to the device may be able to decrypt the device’s contents. The CERT/CC is currently unaware of a practical solution to this problem.[…]

http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/166743