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Apple Fixes Dangerous SSL Authentication Flaw In iOS
wiredmikey writes "Users of iOS devices will find themselves with a new software update to install, thanks to a certificate validation flaw in the mobile popular OS. While Apple provides very little information when disclosing security issues, the company said that an attacker with a 'privileged network position could capture or modify data in sessions protected by SSL/TLS.' 'While this flaw itself does not allow an attacker to compromise a vulnerable device, it is still a very serious threat to the privacy of users as it can be exploited through Man-in-the-Middle attack,' VUPEN's Chaouki Bekrar told SecurityWeek. For example, when connecting to an untrusted WiFi network, attackers could spy on user connections to websites and services that are supposed to be using encrypted communications, Bekrar said. Users should update their iOS devices to iOS 7.0.6 as soon as possible." Adds reader Trailrunner7: "The wording of the description is interesting, as it suggests that the proper certificate-validation checks were in place at some point in iOS but were later removed somehow. The effect of an exploit against this vulnerability would be for an attacker with a man-in-the-middle position on the victim's network would be able to read supposedly secure communications. It's not clear when the vulnerability was introduced, but the CVE entry for the bug was reserved on Jan. 8."
The update is available to all supported devices (From the iPhone 3GS running 6.1.x and up).
I heard OSX has the same problem.
@Apple: Admit that it exists (plus give advice how to prevent problems) or let us know that OSX is safe.
They also released 6.1.6 which patches this bug.
The bug is that the cn hostname from the certificate is not verified. So it's possible to use your own website SSL cert as a cert for any other site and Apple devices will accept it no question. Of course, to exploit, you'd need to modify a tool like webmitm to serve a fixed certificate.
Very very dangerous, seems to be a result of switching away from OpenSSL although details are still flaky.
in
http://opensource.apple.com/so...
if ((err = SSLHashSHA1.update(&hashCtx, &signedParams)) != 0)
goto fail;
goto fail;
The AC seems to be hoping we have all forgotten
"Revealed: how US and UK spy agencies defeat internet privacy and security" (6 September 2013)
http://www.theguardian.com/wor...
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc-help...
Belief is the currency of delusion.
Apple's strategy is to test, test, test and then test the best they can, release multiple beta versions to developers for testing, take a very long time to release new versions, and then patch the missed bugs that show up as fast as they can. Pretty much the way any professional software house does business.
Or are you of the opinion that it's possible to release such a massive amount of code totally bug-free?
1) I haven't seen GOTO statements since my GWBASIC days, and I've surely never seen this many.
2) I really like one-liners for if statements in Ruby: "do_this if x==1"
3) Two-liners for C if statements without curly braces feel wrong, are dangerous and hard to read
4) http://xkcd.com/292/
5) GOTO 1
Or they could update to iOS 6.1.6 on their iPhone 3GS (previous versions of iOS did not have this bug)
Really... Five hours after the *first post* already shot down this claim?
Really, why would you trust a system where someone you dont know or trust is in charge of the private keys for the encryption?
Failing to secure your connections is just wilfully stupid. SSL is the best option we've got to avoid a whole range of attacks (it's far easier than the alternatives) but it does require correct implementations and careful selection of who to trust; SSL itself does not specify who to trust (and how can it? It's just a technical protocol for how to establish a secure channel over an insecure connection, typically implemented with TCP/IP).
Explicitly listing who to trust is best, but it's extremely hard to scale up (since you have to pre-share the keys). A web-of-trust scales better, but once someone makes a mistake (easily done) it all crumbles. Using a certificate authority scales much better, and isn't quite as brittle as a WoT, but it does rely on the CAs (especially the root CAs; non-roots are easier to discipline) being very highly trustworthy. Commercial pressures are unlikely to make limiting the scope of domains that any CA can issue for practical (and in any case, certificates are not tied to domains in general; that's a feature of some particular types of certificates only).
Every time someone suggests "oh we can't trust SSL" it is invariably because they don't know what it does and doesn't do, and because they think that there's only one kind of threat. That's incredibly wrong-headed and foolish.
"Little does he know, but there is no 'I' in 'Idiot'!"
Given this bug exists in published open source code, I'm not sure how your point is relevant to this particular issue.
https://www.imperialviolet.org...
Open source code is not a panacea. Have you not been paying attention to the number of RHEL kernel updates (to pick one example) released in 2014?
#DeleteChrome
Unfortunately, Apple seem to have abandoned iOS 5 support already.
iOS 6 isn't even 18 months old yet and was their Windows Vista, so a lot of people didn't upgrade. iOS 7 isn't even 6 months old, had security problems of its own at launch, and runs like a limping dog on some very popular devices still in widespread use, so a lot of people didn't upgrade to that either.
The vulnerability here was caused by a rookie error that could easily have been found and fixed by following any one of several best practices in their software development process, and for something security-related they should have been following all of them.
This is a very poor show from Apple on all counts. :-(
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.