Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
This CVE concerns weak randomness in older PolarSSL. Its random generator depends on CPU timing, which can become predictable or zeroed in some virtual machines. Weak randomness can undermine keys or TLS security, but the supplied sources do not quantify severity or confirm exploitation.
Executive priority
Treat this as a legacy cryptography risk needing inventory-driven cleanup, not an emergency based on current evidence. Prioritize internet-facing, high-trust, or virtualized systems that still depend on old PolarSSL.
Technical view
PolarSSL versions described as prior to v1.1 use HAVEGE for random generation. HAVEGE relies on high-resolution processor timing via RDTSC. In virtualized environments, RDTSC may be disabled or virtualized, returning zeros or predictable values, creating CWE-338 risk around insufficient randomness.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most plausible in legacy systems, embedded products, or appliances bundling old PolarSSL, especially inside virtual machines. The source bundle has an inconsistency: it says prior to v1.1, while affected data lists PolarSSL 1.1.0.
Exploitation context
No cited source in the bundle confirms active exploitation, public exploit use, or CISA KEV listing. The risk is cryptographic degradation: predictable random output could weaken generated secrets if affected PolarSSL code is actually used.
Researcher notes
Evidence is limited to the CVE record and linked PolarSSL advisory reference. The main uncertainty is affected-version scope because the narrative says prior to v1.1 while the affected field lists 1.1.0. Validate against original vendor guidance before closure.
Mitigation direction
- Inventory applications, firmware, and appliances for bundled PolarSSL versions.
- Check PolarSSL security advisory 2011-02 for vendor remediation guidance.
- Replace or upgrade components using affected HAVEGE-based PolarSSL randomness.
- Prioritize systems running affected PolarSSL inside virtualized environments.
- Retire unsupported PolarSSL dependencies where vendor fixes are unavailable.
Validation and detection
- Confirm exact bundled PolarSSL version from software bills of materials or binaries.
- Verify whether the application uses PolarSSL random generation paths.
- Identify virtualized deployments where RDTSC may be disabled or predictable.
- Review vendor advisory mapping against the version inconsistency in the bundle.
- Document compensating controls only after confirming no vulnerable RNG path is reachable.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CWE-338: Exact CWE lookup
Use the exact CWE identifier as the starting point before reviewing related ATT&CK behavior. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2011-4574 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- Unknown
- CVSS
- Not scored
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CVSS and timeline data
No CVSS vectors or timeline events were available in the normalized CVE source material.
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://tls.mbed.org/tech-updates/security-advisories/polarssl-security-advisory-2011-02CVE reference · x_refsource_MISC
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.
Use of Cryptographically Weak Pseudo-Random Number Generator (PRNG)
Use of Cryptographically Weak Pseudo-Random Number Generator (PRNG) represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.