Improper Certificate Validation
CVE-2012-5817
Summary
Codehaus XFire 1.2.6 and earlier, as used in the Amazon EC2 API Tools Java library and other products, does not verify that the server hostname matches a domain name in the subject's Common Name (CN) or subjectAltName field of the X.509 certificate, which allows man-in-the-middle attackers to spoof SSL servers via an arbitrary valid certificate.
- HIGH
- NETWORK
- HIGH
- UNCHANGED
- NONE
- NONE
- HIGH
- 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.
Advisory Timeline
- Published