[56056] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: SSL crack in the news
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Matt Zimmerman)
Sat Feb 22 17:14:29 2003
Date: Sat, 22 Feb 2003 17:13:55 -0500
From: Matt Zimmerman <mdz@csh.rit.edu>
To: nanog@merit.edu
Mail-Followup-To: nanog@merit.edu
In-Reply-To: <01d101c2dab4$b3b55890$e26cf640@amplex.net>
Errors-To: owner-nanog-outgoing@merit.edu
On Sat, Feb 22, 2003 at 03:55:14PM -0500, Mark Radabaugh wrote:
> http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/02/21/email.encryption.reut/index.html
>
> Very little real information...
Sounds like a CNN-digested version of CAN-2003-0078, which is a (relatively
minor) bug in OpenSSL which allows for a timing attack.
OpenSSL CHANGES file:
*) In ssl3_get_record (ssl/s3_pkt.c), minimize information leaked
via timing by performing a MAC computation even if incorrrect
block cipher padding has been found. This is a countermeasure
against active attacks where the attacker has to distinguish
between bad padding and a MAC verification error. (CAN-2003-0078)
[Bodo Moeller; problem pointed out by Brice Canvel (EPFL),
Alain Hiltgen (UBS), Serge Vaudenay (EPFL), and
Martin Vuagnoux (EPFL, Ilion)]
CNN:
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Researchers at a Swiss university have cracked the
technology used to keep people from eavesdropping on e-mail sent over the
Web...
Typical.
--
- mdz
