SSL Web Security Protocol Compromised by Researchers

Two researchers with PhoneFactor say they've found a serious flaw with SSL security - the technology used to protect most online transactions.

Two researchers with PhoneFactor, a company that offers two-factor authentication services, say that thay have uncovered a serious vulnerability in SSL (Secure Sockets Layer), a fundamental online security technology that’s widely used to safeguard ecommerce transactions and other sensitive data. The flaw, in theory, can enable attackers to insert themselves into a secured online transaction as a “man in the middle,” able to view all data moving back and forth between two parties—and alter the data stream and issue commands—on what the users believe is a secured connections.

The researchers, Marsh Ray and Steve Dispensa, found the error in August 2009 and reported it to a group of impacted vendors and standards committees without publicly disclosing the problem. PhoneFactor had planned to hold off on disclosing the vulnerability until early 2010 in order to give vendors time to patch their SSL software and deploy fixed versions to their customers, but another research discovered the bug independently and posted it to an IETF mailing list on November 4.

“Because this is a protocol vulnerability, and not merely an implementation flaw, the impacts are far-reaching,” said PhoneFactor CTO Steve Dispensa, in a statement. “All SSL libraries will need to be patched, and most client and server applications will, at a minimum, need to include new copies of SSL libraries in their products. Most users will eventually need to update any software that uses SSL.”

SSL is widely used to secure transmissions for a variety of applications, from ecommerce and online banking, Web-based management of almost any sort of customer account, as well as non-Web applications like database servers, email, and enterprise systems.

The new vulnerability is not the first to hit SSL in recent months: at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas security researchers Mike Zusman and Alex Sotirov demonstrated a browser design flaw that enabled man-in-the-middle attacks on SSL connections. Other recent attacks on SSL have focused on clandestinely shifting traffic from SSL_protected https:// connections to unsecured http:// links.