IMHO, there should be some effort to try to prevent this sort of attack. The
gist of the attack is that private keys can be recovered by reading a process's
memory. I haven't really researched the preventive measures.
Noel
Minor Huffman
01/14/2000 05:33 PM
To: WDC-WG Champions, WDC-WG Security and Single Login, AD Research
cc:
Subject: FW: Major Flaw In Secure Web Server Technology Uncovered (Document
link not converted)
Pierre-Jean Crouy
01/14/2000 11:26 AM
To: Minor Huffman@JPMORGAN
cc:
Subject: Major Flaw In Secure Web Server Technology Uncovered
Major Flaw In Secure Web Server Technology Uncovered
CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND, Newsbytes via NewsEdge Corporation : A group of key IT
security specialists have uncovered, what they say is, a major security failing
with modern so-called secure Web server software from Microsoft [NASDAQ:MSFT],
Netscape [NYSE:AOL], and Apache.
Until now, they say, it was believed that security information called "private
keys" could not be found in the memory systems of a server and compromised.
Back In February, 1999, Dr. Nicko van Someren, chief technology officer of
nCipher, and Dr. Adi Shamir of the Weizmann Institute in Israel - the co-
inventor of the RSA encryption system - described their initial findings at the
Financial Cryptography '99 conference.
The researchers' discovery introduces the possibility that any user with the
capability to execute software on a company's e-commerce server could quickly
locate cryptographic keys that would allow access to secure information ranging
from PC data to credit card numbers.
Dr. Nikko van Someren told Newsbytes that, to date, this security flaw means
that current secure Web server software from the three industry majors -
Microsoft, Netscape and Apache - is vulnerable to attack by someone with a
degree of knowledge of how the secure keys operate.
"The solution to this isn't to hide the keys elsewhere in some other form on
the server. It's to move the keys off the server altogether and hold them in a
separate system," he said.
To this end, nCipher has developed a package that it is offering free to
organizations which are affected by the security loophole.
"We are also offering a secure system to hold the keys," van Someren said,
adding that pricing on the firm's security system to beat the security flaw,
sells for between $4,000 and $17,000.
NCipher's latest findings, along with a discussion of best practices in Web
server security, are outlined in a new white paper entitled "Protecting
Commercial Secure Web Servers from Key-Finding Threats," which has been
published on the firm's Web site at http://www.ncipher.com/keyfinding.html .
In the paper, nCipher describes the security threat in which an unauthorized
intruder can find and use a private key in a cryptographic security scheme to
access confidential company and customer information on a commercial e-commerce
Web site.
The paper also describes the preventative measures that IT and security
professionals can take to guard against these so-called "key-finding" attacks.
Van Someren said that security vendors must be constantly on the lookout for
potential vulnerabilities in order to develop more powerful preventative
systems, as well as to guide organizations on how to establish and follow best
practice security standards.
"The use of dedicated key management hardware in e-commerce systems can vastly
improve the standard of security achieved, since it has been demonstrated that
techniques employing software alone are inadequate," he said.
NCipher says that, typically, in a commercial secure Web server, private keys
are encrypted and stored within the server, where they must be decrypted before
being used.
Once decrypted into plain-text, the key is vulnerable to the "key- finding"
attack. But since a key is only a few hundred bytes long and the storage space
of the server may be tens of gigabytes, conventional reasoning argues that an
intruder is unlikely to ever find the key.
However, finding a key is easier than originally thought, the firm says, since
the keys to the type of cryptographic systems used in secure Web servers are
unusual numbers with specific mathematical properties, making it possible for
an intruder to identify them.
NCipher says that, when carrying out a "key-finding" attack, the intruder needs
to look only for these special characteristics and be able to read the memory
of an existing Web server process.
The firm adds that, once the intruder has found the key, gained permission to
read the memory where it is stored and copied the key, the Web server and its
customers are defenseless.
In addition, although the intruder would most likely be an insider, there are
scenarios in which the intruder could also be an outsider.
Either way, nCipher says that an intruder who is successful using this attack
compromises the organization's e-commerce security, and Web sites must ensure
that it is never allowed to occur.
Furthermore, the firm says, the loss of the private key to a secure Web server
allows all past transactions to be decoded. Any information processed through
that Web server, and previously thought secure, cannot be considered so any
longer.
Van Someren said that, as well as developing the solution to the Web server's
security shortcomings, his team have been working with the companies whose
software is affected to ensure that future releases of their Web servers are
immune to such attacks.
"In this way, as well as highlighting the problem and offering solutions to
existing users, we are stopping it happening to users who install these
packages in future," he said.
nCipher's Web site is at http://www.ncipher.com .
Reported by Newsbytes.com, http://www.newsbytes.com .
(20000113/Press Contact: Alex van Someren, nCipher +44-1223-723600 /WIRES PC,
ONLINE, BUSINESS/)
<<Newsbytes -- 01-13-00>>
[01-13-00 at 18:15 EDT, Copyright 2000, Newsbytes News Network, File:
n0113503.0by]
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