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Kazakhstan to MitM all HTTPS traffic starting Jan 1

telecom.kz

141–150 of 378 posts

Re: Kazakhstan to MitM all HTTPS traffic starting Jan 1

#141
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually they really should. As soon as major networks start saying NO is when governments change, I think this is one of the few times where this kind of pressure would be mostly good.

And it wouldn't work. You've apparently have never been stuck inside China. I was there for a few years and it was brutal, network wise. Local companies just replace what can't be accessed from the outside.

China had a large domestic Internet industry, though. KZ doesn't.

Re: Kazakhstan to MitM all HTTPS traffic starting Jan 1

#142
post #63

Slightly OT - if the bad guy can't fiddle with the trust store of your computer, whats his another methods of analysing a users traffic? Is https breakable by other means?

They don't really have to force you to install that root cert. Every https connection will be signed with it, so you either trust that cert and can actually view the site (and gov can read it all) or you don't and just get error in your browser.

Everything is breakable, but some things take a really looong time to break. Governments might be able to break some weak https encryption, but not all.

Re: Kazakhstan to MitM all HTTPS traffic starting Jan 1

#143
post #126
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Install the certificate, then route all your connections through a tunnel. Multiple options are available like openvpn, shuttle[1], etc.. [1] https://github.com/apenwarr/sshuttle/

I assumed that they would refuse to serve traffic that they couldn't decrypt with this certificate.

Then let's obfuscate[1][2]!

[1] https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/usenixsecurit...

[2] https://www.torproject.org/projects/obfsproxy-instructions.h...

Re: Kazakhstan to MitM all HTTPS traffic starting Jan 1

#144
post #89

This is what HTTP Public Key Pinning (HPKP) protects against. It allows a server to specify the only set of certificates that a browser should accept. Meaning that MITM'ing is impossible, without a valid cert in the chain of one of the advertised trusted certificates from the server. Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Chrome for Android, and the Android stock browser all support it. I'm not sure how they intend to circumvent th…

No, it isn't. Locally installed certificates override pins; if they didn't, HPKP browsers wouldn't be deployable inside large companies that have regulatory requirements to monitor traffic from their own desktops, and there would be no benefit, because an adversary who can install software or reconfigure your machine can defeat pins in a variety of other less transparent ways. HPKP is great, but it doesn't address th…

It would be great if the use of a locally installed CA were flagged, for instance, by a question mark next to the lock icon. That would at least make it visible.

Re: Kazakhstan to MitM all HTTPS traffic starting Jan 1

#145
Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't android display a rather ennerving "someone might be spying on you" warning when custom root certs are installed? I'm looking forward to the reactions when every (android-using) citizen of the country student gets that warning.

Re: Kazakhstan to MitM all HTTPS traffic starting Jan 1

#146
post #72

Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Microsoft, Salesforce, Box, Dropbox, Twitter, etc. could have a very strong influence on changing this if they banded together to respond to this in some way. The government might be doing what they think is right, but public backlash can change policy almost overnight. We saw this in the US recently with SOPA/PIPA. The "Internet" response was unprecedented. The people of Kazakhstan can achie…

Kazakhstan is not the US. We are highly unlikely to see a public uprising in Kazakhstan over this when the country has had the same president since 1991 and rubber-stamp parliament. Protests in 2011 were quelled by gunning down protestors (see below).

Nazarbayev, re-elected in a barely contested election to a fifth term on Sunday, was born to a peasant family. He trained as an engineer before rising through the ranks of the Kazakh Communist Party to head it in 1989 and was elected president on the eve of the Soviet breakup in 1991.

Since then, his power has become absolute, with resounding, but internationally criticised election victories in 1999, 2005 and 2011. There is no obvious succession plan in place and there are no clear alternatives to Nazarbayev's rule...

In 2011, however, a pay dispute in the oil sector turned violent with government troops shooting dead 15 protesters and injuring over a hundred

[source:] http://news.yahoo.com/nazarbayev-kazakhstans-moderniser-auth...

Re: Kazakhstan to MitM all HTTPS traffic starting Jan 1

#148
post #16

Wow, I feel really sorry for all Kzakhstan citizens. Also, this is a great example of 'rubber-hose cryptoanalysis' - who cares about 4096 RSA or whatnot if the government can just beat you until you oblige...

Kneecaps are always the easiest things to break.

Re: Kazakhstan to MitM all HTTPS traffic starting Jan 1

#149
post #83

Woah, it can't be stressed how bad this is. If this succeeds, other countries will definitely follow! If it can be shown to work, it will be demanded that this be implemented by pretty much everyone for difficult to deny political reasons (terrorists, children, crime, etc) This feels like the first bullet in a new war that will occur in every parliament world wide.

I can't say that I agree with you. Kazakstan has never really been much of a leader in world politics.

Re: Kazakhstan to MitM all HTTPS traffic starting Jan 1

#150

This is what HTTP Public Key Pinning (HPKP) protects against. It allows a server to specify the only set of certificates that a browser should accept. Meaning that MITM'ing is impossible, without a valid cert in the chain of one of the advertised trusted certificates from the server. Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Chrome for Android, and the Android stock browser all support it. I'm not sure how they intend to circumvent th…

> I'm not sure how they intend to circumvent this problem, apart from perhaps just instructing users to not use those browsers? That's quite difficult to put into practice.

Even if pins overrode locally installed certificates, all they would have to do is to block all outgoing raw HTTPS traffic. All these browser-side security mechanisms can do is to refuse to initiate insecure connections (and inform the vendors about broken pins). They can't force a network that is actively designed to forbid private connections to allow them.

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