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Windows 10: NSA Reveals Major Flaw in Microsoft's Code

posted by chromas on Wednesday January 15 2020, @07:42AM   Printer-friendly
from the Ruh-Roh! dept.

martyb writes:

Windows 10: NSA reveals major flaw in Microsoft's code:

The US National Security Agency (NSA) has revealed a major flaw in Windows 10 that could have been used by hackers to create malicious software that looked legitimate.

Microsoft is expected to issue a patch later and to say that the bug has not been exploited by hackers.

The issue was revealed during an NSA press conference.

It was not clear how long it had known about it before revealing it to Microsoft.

Brian Krebs, the security expert who first reported the revelation[*], said the software giant had already sent the patch to branches of the US military and other high-level users. It was, he wrote, "extraordinarily scary".

The problem exists in a core component of Windows known as crypt32.dll, a program that allows software developers to access various functions, such as digital certificates which are used to sign software.

It could, in theory, have allowed a hacker to pass off a piece of malicious software as being entirely legitimate.

[*] Cryptic Rumblings Ahead of First 2020 Patch Tuesday.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://kb.cert.org/vuls/id/849224/

The Microsoft Windows CryptoAPI, which is provided by Crypt32.dll, fails to validate ECC [Elliptic Curve Cryptography] certificates in a way that properly leverages the protections that ECC cryptography should provide. As a result, an attacker may be able to craft a certificate that appears to have the ability to be traced to a trusted root certificate authority.

Any software, including third-party non-Microsoft software, that relies on the Windows CertGetCertificateChain() function to determine if an X.509 certificate can be traced to a trusted root CA may incorrectly determine the trustworthiness of a certificate chain.

Original Submission 0, Original Submission 1

 
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  • (Score: 2) by driverless on Wednesday January 15 2020, @10:18AM (2 children)

    by driverless (4770) on Wednesday January 15 2020, @10:18AM (#943530)

    an attacker may be able to spoof a valid X.509 certificate chain on a vulnerable Windows system

    As opposed to what attackers have been doing for years, stealing or buying fraudulent code-signing certs that allow them to do all that and more. This is only scary if you're part of the tiny subset of people who insist on pretending that X.509 works.

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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 15 2020, @11:50AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 15 2020, @11:50AM (#943546)

    This is only scary if you're part of the tiny subset of people who insist on pretending that X.509 works.

    This is only not scary if you're part of the tiny subset of people who insist on pretending that X.509 does not work.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 15 2020, @02:24PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 15 2020, @02:24PM (#943583)

    the tiny subset of people who insist on pretending that X.509 works

    Apparently that tiny subset includes microsoft.