• "Given their power to intercept and disrupt secret communications, it is not surprising that quantum computers have the attention of various U.S. government agencies.  The National Security Agency, which supports research in quantum computing, candidly declares that given its interest in keeping U.S. government communications secure, it is loath to see quantum computers built. On the other hand, if they can be built, then it wants to have the first one.”

    Prof Seth Lloyd of MIT, MIT Review 2008

  • “Assurance is best addressed during the initial design and engineering of security systems, NOT as an after market patch. The earlier you include a security architect in your design process, the greater the likely hood of a successful and robust design. As the quip goes, he who gets to the (module) interface first wins.”

    Brian Snow, Former Technical Director of the US National Security Agency (NSA), "We need Assurance", AusCERT 2008

  • "But conventional security is not enough. The complexity of today's operational environment means organisations must embrace a level of business resilience that is normally associated with the protection of critical national infrastructure."

    Detica, a BAE Systems Company

  • “Never underestimate the attention, risk, money and time that an opponent will put into reading traffic.”

    Robert Morris, former Chief Scientist of the US National Security Agency (NSA), National Computer Security Center, "Crypto '95 invited talks by R. Morris and A. Shamir", 1995

  • “The software security industry today is at about the same stage as the auto industry was in 1930" ... "it looks fast, goes nice but in an accident you die.” ... "The major shortfall is absence of assurance (or safety) mechanisms in software. If my car crashed as often as my computer does, I would be dead by now."

    Brian Snow, Former Technical Director of the US National Security Agency (NSA), "We need assurance!", 1999-2008

  • "My colleagues at MIT and I have been building simple quantum computers and executing quantum algorithms since 1996, as have other scientists around the world. Quantum computers work as promised. If they can be scaled up, to thousands or tens of thousands of qubits from their current size of a dozen or so, watch out!”

    Prof Seth Lloyd of MIT, MIT Review 2008

  • “It's not good enough to have a system where everyone (using the system) must be trusted, it must also be made robust against insiders!”

    Robert Morris, former Chief Scientist of the US National Security Agency (NSA), National Computer Security Center, "Crypto '95 invited talks by R. Morris and A. Shamir", 1995

  • "Today’s systems must anticipate future attacks. Any comprehensive system – whether for authenticated communications, secure data storage, or electronic commerce – is likely to remain in use for five years or more. It must be able to withstand the future: smarter attackers, more computational power, and greater incentives to subvert a widespread system. There won’t be time to upgrade it in the field."

    Bruce Schneier, "Why Cryptography Is Harder Than It Looks", 1997

  • “The more complex the threats become, the more you have to do the basics and groundwork really well. Staying aware and on top of new vulnerabilities and ensuring that patches and software updates are rapidly implemented is crucial.”

    Jeff Shipley, Cisco Intelligence Collection Manager, Cisco 2008 Annual Security Report

  • “In the next five years we will counter many 'hacker' attacks but we will not be safe from Nation States and other large entities”

    Brian Snow, Former Technical Director of the US National Security Agency (NSA), "We need assurance!", 1999-2008

Resources Security bibliography Security recommendations bibliography: MD5 Considered Harmful Today - Creating a rogue Certificate Authority certificate (2008)
bibliography: MD5 Considered Harmful Today - Creating a rogue Certificate Authority certificate (2008)
Full Title: "MD5 considered harmful today - Creating a rogue CA certificate"
Authors: Alexander Sotirov, Marc Stevens, Jacob Appelbaum, Arjen Lenstra, David Molnar, Dag Arne Osvik, Benne de Weger
Date: December 30, 2008
Keywords: assurances; authentication; authorization; availability; backup; compromise; confidentiality; cryptanalysis; cryptographic key; cryptographic module; digital signature; hash function; key agreement; key management; key management policy; key recovery; key transport; originator usage period; private key; public key; recipient usage period; secret key; split knowledge; trust anchor
Electronic Publication: Website, PDF
Abstract:

We have identified a vulnerability in the Internet Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) used to issue digital certificates for secure websites. As a proof of concept we executed a practical attack scenario and successfully created a rogue Certification Authority (CA) certificate trusted by all common web browsers. This certificate allows us to impersonate any website on the Internet, including banking and e-commerce sites secured using the HTTPS protocol.

Our attack takes advantage of a weakness in the MD5 cryptographic hash function that allows the construction of different messages with the same MD5 hash. This is known as an MD5 "collision". Previous work on MD5 collisions between 2004 and 2007 showed that the use of this hash function in digital signatures can lead to theoretical attack scenarios. Our current work proves that at least one attack scenario can be exploited in practice, thus exposing the security infrastructure of the web to realistic threats.

As a result of this successful attack, we are currently in possession of a rogue Certification Authority certificate. This certificate will be accepted as valid and trusted by all common browsers, because it appears to be signed by one of the root CAs that browsers trust by default. In turn, any website certificate signed by our rogue CA will be trusted as well. If an unsuspecting user is a victim of a man-in-the-middle attack using such a certificate, they will be assured that the connection is secure through all common security indicators: a "https://" url in the address bar, a closed padlock and messages such as "This certificate is OK" if they chose to inspect the certificate.

This successful proof of concept shows that the certificate validation performed by browsers can be subverted and malicious attackers might be able to monitor or tamper with data sent to secure websites. Banking and e-commerce sites are particularly at risk because of the high value of the information secured with HTTPS on those sites. With a rogue CA certificate, attackers would be able to execute practically undetectable phishing attacks against such sites.

The infrastructure of Certification Authorities is meant to prevent exactly this type of attack. Our work shows that known weaknesses in the MD5 hash function can be exploited in realistic attack, due to the fact that even after years of warnings about the lack of security of MD5, some root CAs are still using this broken hash function.

The vulnerability we expose is not in the SSL protocol or the web servers and browsers that implement it, but in the Public Key Infrastructure. This infrastructure has applications in other areas than the web, but we have not investigated all other possible attack scenarios. So other attack scenarios beyond the web are conceivable, such as in the areas of code signing, e-mail security, and in other areas that use certificates for enabling digital signatures or public key encryption.
Quote: "Any website, whether it is secure (i.e. uses SSL) or not, whether it has an MD5-based, SHA-1-based, SHA-256-based, or any other type of certificate, irrespective of which Certification Authority issued the certificate, can be impersonated, in particular not only genuine websites that have an MD5-based certificate are vulnerable."
Quote: "First and foremost, there is no proper excuse for continued use of a broken cryptographic primitive when sufficiently strong alternatives are readily available, for example SHA-2.
Secondly, there is no substitute for security awareness. Openness about security problems, vulnerabilities and technical possibilities is invaluable to make the Internet a safer place. Advice from experts should be taken seriously and early in the process. In this case, MD5 should have been phased out soon after 2004."
Quote:

"Out of the 30,000 certificates we collected, about 9,000 were signed using MD5, and 97% of those were issued by RapidSSL.

It was quite surprising that so many CAs are still using MD5, considering that MD5 has been known to be insecure since the first collisions were presented in 2004. Since these CAs had ignored all previous warnings by the cryptographic community, we felt that it would be appropriate to attempt a practical attack to demonstrate the risk they present to everybody using a web browser that includes their root CA certificates." 
Quote: "Making the theoretical possible is sometimes the only way you can affect change and secure the Internet"
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Citation:
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Last Updated on Sunday, 04 January 2009 10:58
 
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