Home / ubuntu / Questions / 497923
Accepted
whitenoisedb
Asked: 2014-07-15 22:10:29 +0800 CST

Fake UserTrust.com Certificates in Chrome?

  • 772

I was trying to install a SSL certificate, when I digged into Chrome Settings and looked at the installed ones (servers tab).

Those are marked as Not Safe, and they are related to mail.google.com, login.skype.com, login.live.com, addons.mozilla.org, and a few more, inside a folder named "Google Ldt.".

For example, 

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIIF7jCCBNagAwIBAgIQBH7L6fylX3vQnq424QyuHjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQUFADCB
lzELMAkGA1UEBhMCVVMxCzAJBgNVBAgTAlVUMRcwFQYDVQQHEw5TYWx0IExha2Ug
Q2l0eTEeMBwGA1UEChMVVGhlIFVTRVJUUlVTVCBOZXR3b3JrMSEwHwYDVQQLExho
dHRwOi8vd3d3LnVzZXJ0cnVzdC5jb20xHzAdBgNVBAMTFlVUTi1VU0VSRmlyc3Qt
SGFyZHdhcmUwHhcNMTEwMzE1MDAwMDAwWhcNMTQwMzE0MjM1OTU5WjCB3zELMAkG
A1UEBhMCVVMxDjAMBgNVBBETBTM4NDc3MRAwDgYDVQQIEwdGbG9yaWRhMRAwDgYD
VQQHEwdFbmdsaXNoMRcwFQYDVQQJEw5TZWEgVmlsbGFnZSAxMDEUMBIGA1UEChML
R29vZ2xlIEx0ZC4xEzARBgNVBAsTClRlY2ggRGVwdC4xKDAmBgNVBAsTH0hvc3Rl
ZCBieSBHVEkgR3JvdXAgQ29ycG9yYXRpb24xFDASBgNVBAsTC1BsYXRpbnVtU1NM
MRgwFgYDVQQDEw9tYWlsLmdvb2dsZS5jb20wggEiMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4IB
DwAwggEKAoIBAQCwc/DyBO7CokbKNCqqu2Aj0RF2Hx860GWDTppFqENwhXbwH4cA
Ah9uOxcXxLXpGUaikiWNYiq0YzAfuYX4NeEWWnZJzFBIUzlZidaEAvua7BvHUdV2
lZDUOiq4pt4CTQb7ze2lRkFfVXTl7H5A3FCcteQ1XR5oIPjp3qNqKL9B0qGz4iWN
DBvKPZMMGK7fxbz9vIK6aADXFjJxn2W1EdpoWdCmV2Qbyf6Y5fWlZerh2+70s52z
juqHrhbSHqB8fGk/KRaFAVOnbPFgq92i/CVH1DLREt33SBLg/Jyid5jpiZm4+Djx
jAbCeiM2bZudzTDIxzQXHrt9Qsir5xUW9nO1AgMBAAGjggHqMIIB5jAfBgNVHSME
GDAWgBShcl8mGyiYQ5VdBzfVhZadS9LDRTAdBgNVHQ4EFgQUGCqiyNR6P3utBIu9
b54QRhN4cZ0wDgYDVR0PAQH/BAQDAgWgMAwGA1UdEwEB/wQCMAAwHQYDVR0lBBYw
FAYIKwYBBQUHAwEGCCsGAQUFBwMCMEYGA1UdIAQ/MD0wOwYMKwYBBAGyMQECAQME
MCswKQYIKwYBBQUHAgEWHWh0dHBzOi8vc2VjdXJlLmNvbW9kby5jb20vQ1BTMHsG
A1UdHwR0MHIwOKA2oDSGMmh0dHA6Ly9jcmwuY29tb2RvY2EuY29tL1VUTi1VU0VS
Rmlyc3QtSGFyZHdhcmUuY3JsMDagNKAyhjBodHRwOi8vY3JsLmNvbW9kby5uZXQv
VVROLVVTRVJGaXJzdC1IYXJkd2FyZS5jcmwwcQYIKwYBBQUHAQEEZTBjMDsGCCsG
AQUFBzAChi9odHRwOi8vY3J0LmNvbW9kb2NhLmNvbS9VVE5BZGRUcnVzdFNlcnZl
ckNBLmNydDAkBggrBgEFBQcwAYYYaHR0cDovL29jc3AuY29tb2RvY2EuY29tMC8G
A1UdEQQoMCaCD21haWwuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbYITd3d3Lm1haWwuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbTAN
BgkqhkiG9w0BAQUFAAOCAQEAZwYICifFk24C8t4XP9DTG3z/tc16x3fHvt8Syhne
sBNXDAORxHlSz3+3XlUghEnd9dApLw4E2lmeDhOf9MAym/+hESQql6PyPz0qa6it
jBl1lQ4dJf1PxHoVwx3HE0DIDb6XYHKm/iW+j+zVpobDIVxZUtlqC1yfS961+ezi
9MXMYlN2iWXkKdq3v5bgYI0NtwlV1kBVHcHyliF1r4mGH12BlykoHinXlsEgAzJ7
ADtqNxdao7MabzI7bvGjXaurzCrLMAwfNSOLaURc6qwoYO2ra2Oe9pK8vZpaJkzF
mLgOGT78BTHjFtn9kAUDhsZXAR9/eKDPM2qqZmsi0KdJIw==
-----END CERTIFICATE-----

which results in,

Common Name: mail.google.com
Subject Alternative Names: mail.google.com, www.mail.google.com
Organization: Google Ltd.
Organization Unit: Tech Dept.
Locality: English
State: Florida
Country: US
Valid From: March 14, 2011
Valid To: March 14, 2014
Issuer: UTN-USERFirst-Hardware, The USERTRUST Network Write review of Comodo
Key Size: 2048 bit
Serial Number: 047ecbe9fca55f7bd09eae36e10cae1e

Are they safe?

google-chrome

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    They are NOT safe and that is why they are marked as Untrusted. These were bogus certificates. See this article on EFF:

    On March 15th, an HTTPS/TLS Certificate Authority (CA) was tricked into issuing fraudulent certificates that posed a dire risk to Internet security. Based on currently available information, the incident got close to — but was not quite — an Internet-wide security meltdown. As this post will explain, these events show why we urgently need to start reinforcing the system that is currently used to authenticate and identify secure websites and email systems.

    There is a post up on the Tor Project's blog by Jacob Appelbaum, analyzing the revocation of a number of HTTPS certificates last week. Patches to the major web browsers blacklisted a number of TLS certificates that were issued after hackers broke into a Certificate Authority. Appelbaum and others were able to cross-reference the blacklisted certificates' serial numbers against a comprehensive collection of Certificate Revocation Lists (these CRL URLs were obtained by querying EFF's SSL Observatory databases) to learn which CA had been affected.

    The answer was the UserTrust "UTN-USERFirst-Hardware" certificate owned by Comodo, one of the largest CAs on the web. Comodo has now published a statement about the improperly issued certs, which were for extremely high-value domains including google.com, login.yahoo.com and addons.mozilla.org (this last domain could be used to trojan any system that was installing a new Firefox extension, though updates to previously installed extensions have a second layer of protection from XPI signatures). One cert was for "global trustee" — not a domain name. That was probably a malicious CA certificate that could be used to flawlessly impersonate any domain on the Web.

    • 12