What is a good reason for openssl.org not to utilize HSTS[1]? $ curl -I https://www.openssl.org/ HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Sun, 29 Dec 2013 03:57:54 GMT Server: Apache/2.2.22 (Ubuntu) Accept-Ranges: bytes Vary: Accept-Encoding Content-Length: 15686 Content-Type: text/html [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_Strict_Transport_Security
Because it doesn't need it. Technically no website needs it. Only people who don't know how to type "https" need it.
OpenSSL.org hacked?
51–60 of 98 posts
Re: OpenSSL.org hacked?
#52Re: OpenSSL.org hacked?
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because it doesn't need it. Technically no website needs it. Only people who don't know how to type "https" need it.
No. HSTS prevents SSLStrip attacks when the intended destination is always meant to be in SSL.
Re: OpenSSL.org hacked?
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can always run browser in a vitrual machine. Or open it with a text browser like Lynx or Links. Or use wget to download the file and read in text editor.
But what if the page uses HTML5 audio to "jump the gap" and reprogram all nearby electronic devices to attack you on 1/1/2014!?
Re: OpenSSL.org hacked?
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
$ curl -A "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/31.0.1650.63 Safari/537.36" www.openssl.org
But what if they return a joke, so funny, that it kills whoever reads it?
Re: OpenSSL.org hacked?
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
If they can replace the front page html, they could probably also replace the source code distribution with a backdoored/trojaned tarball. Or someone else might already have done so, since who knows how long ago, using the same exploit.
But would they also be able to replace the public key of the authors in all the other places it appears on the Internet?
Re: OpenSSL.org hacked?
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
$ curl -A "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/31.0.1650.63 Safari/537.36" www.openssl.org
But what if they return a joke, so funny, that it kills whoever reads it?
Re: OpenSSL.org hacked?
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's the use in a static website or a read-only FS when you can overwrite what's in RAM, or just attack routing or DNS? Security is a little more complex.
The point is to minimize attack surfaces. If you're serving static content that's one less path for an attacker to potentially exploit. With only static files exploits are limited to those contained in the web server or the OS network code. With a read only filesystem certain classes of privilege escalation are eliminated. Attacks on routing or DNS are more difficult to deal with, but at least it isn't your server be…
If you want to minimize your attack surface, what he suggested is quite possibly the least effective possible thing anyone could do. I point out just a few of the more important issues to consider first, and you tell ME I don't know about security? I don't know what kind of systems you secure, but mine don't rely on 'mount -o ro,remount /' as a defense strategy.
Re: OpenSSL.org hacked?
#59What is a good reason for openssl.org not to utilize HSTS[1]? $ curl -I https://www.openssl.org/ HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Sun, 29 Dec 2013 03:57:54 GMT Server: Apache/2.2.22 (Ubuntu) Accept-Ranges: bytes Vary: Accept-Encoding Content-Length: 15686 Content-Type: text/html [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_Strict_Transport_Security
Because it doesn't need it. Technically no website needs it. Only people who don't know how to type "https" need it.
It's obvious why it can be a grand target for Man in the Middle, defacement and worst of all integrity attacks. Apart from preventing many of the latter, implementing HSTS could have really mitigated the problem. Anyone who had already visited the site wouldn't see the defaced page. Furthermore, they could get added to an STS preloaded list[1], making the attack invisible to anyone using a modern browser.
If you are interested, the Wikipedia page[2] does a fair job at explaining more about why HSTS is needed.
[1]: https://src.chromium.org/viewvc/chrome/trunk/src/net/http/tr...
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_Strict_Transport_Security...
Re: OpenSSL.org hacked?
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because it doesn't need it. Technically no website needs it. Only people who don't know how to type "https" need it.
Which is, to say, 99.99% of people. Noone types " https://" or " http://"; 99% of people don't even know what https means. Us developers should know better and protect our users. It's our responsibility to make sure the default is secure.