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Breaking Textbook RSA Used to Protect the Privacy of Millions of Users

arxiv.org

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Re: Breaking Textbook RSA Used to Protect the Privacy of Millions of Users

#11

Post by jopsen »

jacquesm wrote: post #7
trhway wrote: post #4

sidenote - user data collection by the browsers : >Through reverse engineering, we have documented the encryption protocols used by QQ Browser to protect the trove of sensitive information each client uploads to QQ Browser’s servers (this is summarized in Section 2). This sensitive information includes International Mobile Equipment Identifier (IMEI) numbers, web pages vis- ited, locational data, and many other kinds…

There ought to be a full transparency report on every browser about what data is collected and shared and with whom. Even Firefox is no longer innocent.

> Even Firefox is no longer innocent

That's FUD

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/privacy/firefox/

Review process: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Data_Collection and not only is the source available, you can inspect opt-in metrics in about:telemetry, and see aggregated metrics at telemetry.mozilla.org (no other vendor will share that with you)

> There ought to be a full transparency report on every browser...

Yes, but not all browser vendors care about your privacy. So if privacy matters to you use Firefox :)

Re: Breaking Textbook RSA Used to Protect the Privacy of Millions of Users

#12

Post by jacquesm »

jopsen wrote: post #11
jacquesm wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There ought to be a full transparency report on every browser about what data is collected and shared and with whom. Even Firefox is no longer innocent.

> Even Firefox is no longer innocent That's FUD https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/privacy/firefox/ Review process: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Data_Collection and not only is the source available, you can inspect opt-in metrics in about:telemetry, and see aggregated metrics at telemetry.mozilla.org (no other vendor will share that with you) > There ought to be a full transparency report on every browser... Yes, but…

You must have missed this:

https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/16/16784628/mozilla-mr-robo...

And I do use Firefox.

But they really should not have done that, even if in the end the actual harm done was nil it broke trust.

There is also this:

https://github.com/amq/firefox-debloat

I actually take exception to your classifying my comment as FUD, I'm in nobody's pocket (pun intended) and the worst you could accuse me of is being wrong. That said I was happy to trust the Mozilla of the past a lot more than I'm willing to trust the Mozilla of the present. Their forced upgrade strategy breaking my workflow and the Mr. Robot episode on top of that did little to assure me that they still have my best interest in mind. The thing that keeps me from switching is that I'm pretty sure all the competition is much worse.

Re: Breaking Textbook RSA Used to Protect the Privacy of Millions of Users

#14

Post by mjg59 »

jacquesm wrote: post #12
jopsen wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even Firefox is no longer innocent That's FUD https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/privacy/firefox/ Review process: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Data_Collection and not only is the source available, you can inspect opt-in metrics in about:telemetry, and see aggregated metrics at telemetry.mozilla.org (no other vendor will share that with you) > There ought to be a full transparency report on every browser... Yes, but…

You must have missed this: https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/16/16784628/mozilla-mr-robo... And I do use Firefox. But they really should not have done that, even if in the end the actual harm done was nil it broke trust. There is also this: https://github.com/amq/firefox-debloat I actually take exception to your classifying my comment as FUD, I'm in nobody's pocket (pun intended) and the worst you could accuse me of i…

What data was collected and shared by that extension?

Re: Breaking Textbook RSA Used to Protect the Privacy of Millions of Users

#15

Post by mikeash »

tptacek wrote: post #2

What's cool about this paper is the CCA2 attack on unpadded RSA in the middle of it. What's cool about that attack is how simple it is. The setting, simplified: you send RSA(aes-key), AES(key, message). The server replies if the AES key it recovers from the RSA message successfully decrypts the AES ciphertext; the server is an oracle for whether the message is valid. The attack is stupid simple: the attacker shifts 1…

I appreciate your summary, and especially the way you ended it.

Re: Breaking Textbook RSA Used to Protect the Privacy of Millions of Users

#16

Post by infogulch »

tptacek wrote: post #2

What's cool about this paper is the CCA2 attack on unpadded RSA in the middle of it. What's cool about that attack is how simple it is. The setting, simplified: you send RSA(aes-key), AES(key, message). The server replies if the AES key it recovers from the RSA message successfully decrypts the AES ciphertext; the server is an oracle for whether the message is valid. The attack is stupid simple: the attacker shifts 1…

Interesting, I never thought of rsa being multiplicatively homomorphic.

Re: Breaking Textbook RSA Used to Protect the Privacy of Millions of Users

#17

Post by blub »

jopsen wrote: post #11
jacquesm wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There ought to be a full transparency report on every browser about what data is collected and shared and with whom. Even Firefox is no longer innocent.

> Even Firefox is no longer innocent That's FUD https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/privacy/firefox/ Review process: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Data_Collection and not only is the source available, you can inspect opt-in metrics in about:telemetry, and see aggregated metrics at telemetry.mozilla.org (no other vendor will share that with you) > There ought to be a full transparency report on every browser... Yes, but…

If privacy matters to you use Firefox... but make sure you turn off all the telemetry spyware first and make sure you're not on the beta channel. Firefox downloads in Germany should aditionally be inspected for cliqz spyware.

jaquesm is merely pointing out that "use Firefox" needs a disclaimer today, whereas in the past one could simply use Firefox out of the box.

Re: Breaking Textbook RSA Used to Protect the Privacy of Millions of Users

#18

Post by omarforgotpwd »

So the browser uses a poor pseudorandom number generation, hard-coded symmetric keys, and 128 BIT RSA??? Not even 1024, just... 128? Well, congratulations on cracking it. The exploit they present is great though because it's so easy to understand, even if you only have basic understanding of cryptanalysis.

Re: Breaking Textbook RSA Used to Protect the Privacy of Millions of Users

#19

Post by jacquesm »

mjg59 wrote: post #14
jacquesm wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You must have missed this: https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/16/16784628/mozilla-mr-robo... And I do use Firefox. But they really should not have done that, even if in the end the actual harm done was nil it broke trust. There is also this: https://github.com/amq/firefox-debloat I actually take exception to your classifying my comment as FUD, I'm in nobody's pocket (pun intended) and the worst you could accuse me of i…

What data was collected and shared by that extension?

I did not claim any data was shared by that extension.

Re: Breaking Textbook RSA Used to Protect the Privacy of Millions of Users

#20

Post by lou1306 »

tomrod wrote: post #10
opsiprogram wrote: post #9

haha i read this headline and thought to myself "breaking textbook RSA is EXACTLY what I was just learning about in class today" and then I noticed one of the authors is my professor

How funny! It's pretty cool learning things from the literal experts at the frontiers of human knowledge. I hope he or she teaches well as well!

Well, you're right, but keep in mind that breaking textbook RSA is not exactly "the frontiers of human knowledge", theory-wise. Most textbooks, in fact, will warn you that their description of RSA is vulnerable to chosen-plaintext attacks, and therefore you should add a padding scheme for your messages.

However, papers like this are extremely useful, as they show new ways to exploit this theoretical vulnerability in a real-world case study.

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