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Improper Certificate Validation

CVE-2012-4948

Medium
5.3/10

Summary

The default configuration of Fortinet Fortigate UTM appliances uses the same Certification Authority certificate and same private key across different customers' installations, which makes it easier for man-in-the-middle attackers to spoof SSL servers by leveraging the presence of the Fortinet_CA_SSLProxy certificate in a list of trusted root certification authorities.

  • HIGH
  • ADJACENT_NETWORK
  • NONE
  • PARTIAL
  • COMPLETE
  • NONE

CWE-295 - Improper Certificate Validation

The authenticity component of a web system stems from the ability to validate “Digital certificates”, which (i) establish trust between two or more entities sharing data over a network; (ii) ensure data at rest and transit is secure from unauthorized access; and (iii) check the identity of the actors that interact with the system. An application with absent or ineffective certificate validation mechanisms allows malicious users, impersonating trusted hosts, to manipulate the communication path between the client and the host, resulting in unauthorized access to data and to the application’s internal environment, and potentially enabling man-in-the-middle attacks.

References

Advisory Timeline

  • Published