CVE-2016-8217 Dell CVE debrief

Who should care

Teams that still use or embed RSA BSAFE Crypto-J, especially software that imports or validates PKCS#12 files. Security, application, and platform owners should care most if the product handles attacker-controlled PKCS#12 content.

Technical summary

The CVE text states that an attacker who can modify a PKCS#12 file and submit it to the toolkit may attempt to recover the MAC one byte at a time by observing timing differences during MAC verification. NVD maps the weakness to CWE-200 and lists the vulnerable CPE range as dell:bsafe_crypto-j with versions before 6.2.2. The core issue is non-constant-time MAC comparison, which can leak information about the correct MAC.

Defensive priority

Low. The vulnerability is network-reachable in the NVD vector but requires high attack complexity and yields limited confidentiality impact. Prioritize remediation if the product is exposed to untrusted PKCS#12 input or if the affected library remains in production.

Recommended defensive actions

• Upgrade RSA BSAFE Crypto-J to 6.2.2 or later, as stated in the CVE description.
• Inventory applications and services that parse or validate PKCS#12 files with this library.
• Reduce exposure to untrusted PKCS#12 imports where possible until patched.
• If upgrade is not immediately possible, isolate affected components and monitor for unexpected PKCS#12 processing paths.
• Use the linked vendor-advisory references and NVD record to confirm affected product versions in your environment.

Evidence notes

Source corpus states that EMC RSA BSAFE Crypto-J versions prior to 6.2.2 are affected by a PKCS#12 timing attack vulnerability involving non-constant-time MAC comparison. NVD lists CVSS 3.1 AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N, CWE-200, and a vulnerable CPE ending before 6.2.2. Published date is 2017-02-03; NVD metadata was modified on 2026-05-13. No KEV entry is present in the supplied corpus.

Official resources