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THE SEVEN HIDDEN SSL VULNERABILITES in EVERY NETWORK Ensuring That Your Network Is Secure from Every Possible Threat Can Be a Full-Time Job

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THE SEVEN HIDDEN SSL VULNERABILITES in EVERY NETWORK Ensuring That Your Network Is Secure from Every Possible Threat Can Be a Full-Time Job TOPIC: NETWORK VULNERABILITES THE SEVEN HIDDEN SSL VULNERABILITES IN EVERY NETWORK Ensuring that your network is secure from every possible threat can be a full-time job. This challenge is heightened by the fact that many network admins only think about encryption and their SSL certificates on an irregular basis. This article touches on some of the most common areas that companies inadvertently leave exposed to attackers. SSL CERTIFICATES AND ENDPOINT VULNERABILITIES SL Certificates serve as the security backbone of the The Heartbleed Bug is a serious vulnerability in the popular internet, securing billions of interactions annually. OpenSSL cryptographic software library. This weakness allows SYet, too often, system administrators fail to properly stealing the information protected, under normal conditions, configure and install certificates, unknowingly leaving open by the SSL/TLS encryption used to secure the Internet. SSL/TLS vulnerabilities. provides communication security and privacy over the Internet for applications such as web, email, instant messaging (IM) and It is important for security professionals to discover forgotten some virtual private networks (VPNs). or neglected certificates, misconfigured certificates, identify potential liabilities - such as weak keys, problematic ciphers, The Heartbleed bug allows anyone on the Internet to read the expired certificates – as well as vulnerabilities to Heartbleed, memory of the systems protected by the vulnerable versions of CRIME, BEAST, or BREACH attacks. the OpenSSL software. This compromises the secret keys used to identify the service providers and to encrypt the traffic, the Of these attack vulnerabilities, Heartbleed is one of the most names and passwords of the users and the actual content. This troubling, at one time affecting over two thirds of the active allows attackers to eavesdrop on communications, steal data sites on the interneti. On Monday, April 7, 2014, this bug in directly from the services and users and to impersonate services the OpenSSL software library was announced and named and users. http://www.heartbleed.com. Heartbleed. Heartbleed impacts versions 1.0.1 through 1.0.1f and v1.0.2-beta1 of OpenSSL. This is not a bug or flaw with the A few things that set Heartbleed apart from other SSL/TLS protocol — it is a bug in OpenSSL’s implementation vulnerabilities are: of SSL/TLS. • It is impossible to tell if your information has been According to the Heartbleed website hosted by Codenomicon, compromised by Heartbleed. whose engineers were among the first to discover Heartbleed: TOPIC: NETWORK VULNERABILITES • The vulnerability existed for over two years before being Your servers are the same way. If you make sure your server discovered, which increases the scope of potentially is completely secure and then put it in your mattress — or, affected websites. more likely, in a server rack in a datacenter somewhere — and never think about it again, the “inflation” of increasingly • Heartbleed does not depend on any other vulnerability. skilled hackers and technology development will eat away Many attacks require the attacker to gain a foothold at your security even faster than economic inflation dinged through some poor security practice, but Heartbleed does your inheritance. On the other hand, if you take advantage not. of the “interest” provided by new technology and software updates, you can come out much stronger than you were in • The affected versions of OpenSSL have been pushed the beginning. by security experts because they contain fixes for other vulnerabilities. You can be secure today and get hacked tomorrow if you simply “stand still.” Neglected servers quickly become huge There were several documented cases of Heartbleed being security liabilities. A few steps you should take: exploited immediately following public announcement of this vulnerability. Notably, the Canada Revenue Agency lost • “Keep the target moving” by keeping up-to-date. The taxpayer data, including social insurance numbers, for at least longer a piece of old software is sitting on your servers, the 900 taxpayers over a six-hour period.ii However, because an longer hackers have to find weaknesses in that software. attack is undetectable by security surveillance systems, it is Failing to keep on top of operating system updates, impossible to say that no attempt has been made on your patches, and new versions of your software creates new systems. If your server is running a version of OpenSSL between attack vectors for bad actors. This problem is amplified if 1.0.1 and 1.0.1f with the heartbeat extension enabled, you are these vulnerable servers contain the keys used to secure potentially vulnerable to Heartbleed. your network. If you have any question as to whether you are vulnerable, • Strongly consider decommissioning and unplugging the latest version of DigiCert Certificate Inspector has added servers on your network that are not providing a specific, Heartbleed to the lengthy list of certificate and endpoint important function. vulnerabilities it can detect. For instructions on the six steps to take to remediate against Heartbleed and to get access • Keep track of the SSL Certificates on your network. to this tool, visit https://www.digicert.com/heartbleed-bug- Utilities such as DigiCert’s Certificate Inspector help you vulnerability.htm. identify certificates that are on the cusp of expiring, are improperly installed, or have been installed without your As the severity of Heartbleed shows, certificate and endpoint knowledge. vulnerabilities must be taken seriously to ensure your organization’s security. Knowing the location and details • Subscribe to blogs and newsfeeds detailing the latest of every certificate in your network is essential in being security exploits. Knowledge is your best defense. able to respond quickly and completely to any discovered vulnerabilities. INADEQUATELY TRAINED OR OVERWORKED STAFF OUT-OF-DATE SERVERS A phone call comes in to your support team. Amos answers the phone. “Hi Amos, this is Joanna’s cousin Fernando. I’m Imagine you woke up this morning and discovered that you trying to get ahold of her. I tried her cell, but she didn’t answer. had inherited one million dollars. (Congratulations! Can we Do you know if she is back in town, or is she still down in the be friends?) You have two options: stick it in your mattress, or Bahamas?” invest it. How would each approach turn out ten years down the road? Amos might actually be talking to Joanna’s cousin Fernando, or he might be talking to someone who saw on Joanna’s If you invested the money, and it averaged 8% interest over Instagram that she is on vacation in the Bahamas and wants ten years, you would have $2,158,925, which, adjusted for to exploit that knowledge. Once he has Amos convinced that annual inflation of 3%, would be worth $1,606,443 in today’s he’s a relative of a dear co-worker, he has Amos’s implicit trust, dollars. which he can then misuse to get Amos to open an infected file sent via email or visit a malicious website (for example). If you stuck the money in your mattress, after ten years you would still have exactly $1,000,000, but because of the annual This attack is a combination of social engineering and spear inflation of 3%, it would only be worth $744,094 in today’s phishing. Whereas phishing is a more general attack where an dollars. attacker tries to trick a person or organization into trusting him with sensitive information, this approach takes it to the That’s right — by sticking your money in your mattress to keep next level by targeting and initiating contact with a specific it safe, you would lose more than $250,000 in value over the individual. The personalized nature of the attack increases course of a decade. the success rate — a person who would see right through a TOPIC: NETWORK VULNERABILITES “Nigerian prince” scam still might fall into the trap of trusting the Internet. FTP’s low cost and ubiquity make it attractive to someone he presumes is his friend’s cousin. admins; a recent poll by Harris Interactive of 1,000 IT decision makers found that 51 percent of organizations use FTP to Even after deploying a complex security plan and properly exchange large files. configuring all of the servers in your network with state-of-the- art SSL encryption, you can still end up with one glaring weak Unencrypted FTP sites and file transfers are a treasure trove link in your precautions — inadequately trained or overworked for attackers looking for easy pickings. The simple fact that employees. passwords are passed in the clear is a significant risk, and credentials and files often sit on an unprotected server. While Whether these employees are part of your IT staff or any FTP is convenient for end-users, related exploits have been other users scattered throughout your company, their risky responsible for many of the most damaging network hacks habits and behaviors can quickly poke holes in your otherwise in recent years. Because of its inherent risks, use of standard ironclad security. Every employee in your organization needs unencrypted FTP is frowned upon by security auditors. It to be trained on security best practices and what to watch for is embarrassing when a regulator finds an unsecured FTP in common exploits, both software-based and through social connection, and even more so when a Google spider stumbles engineering. They need to know what spear phishing is, how upon it and publishes it to the whole web. to spot suspicious activity, how to ensure sites are secured by HTTPS, and how to react when they see something unusual. In Improperly issued permissions are also a potential problem addition, regular security audits and Security Information and when supposedly limited users end up with access to the entire Event Management (SIEM) will help you identify issues and directory, including other people’s sensitive data.
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