OpenSSL vulnerabilities: the Heartbleed Bug and Cupid

Authors

  • Andrei-Sorin Jerca

Keywords:

Buffer Overflow, OpenSSL, Heartbeat Extension, EAP, The Heartbleed Bug, Cupid, Ethical Hacking Exercise

Abstract

In this paper we expose the importance of information security in today's context of fast technological evolution. Our main objective is to study one of the most recent security issue, discovered in the well-known OpenSSL cryptographic software library, named “the Heartbleed Bug”. This is a serious vulnerability of the Heartbeat Extension for the transport layer security protocols (TLS/DTLS) implementation in OpenSSL. This weakness allows remote attackers to obtain sensitive information (secret keys used for X.509 certificates, user credentials, instant messages, emails and other critical documents and communication) for applications such as web, email, instant messaging and some virtual private networks, which should be protected, under normal conditions, by the SSL/TLS encryption. Further, “Cupid”, shows that the bug can be used, with the same effect, against any device which implies Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) authentication mechanisms and a vulnerable version of OpenSSL. In addition we present guidelines, fixes and methods for preventing and managing possible attacks against vulnerable systems.

References

EC-Council, Ethical Hacking and Countermeasures CEH v8, 2013

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Seggelmann R., Tuexen M., Williams M., RFC6520 - Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) Heartbeat Extension, IETF, tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6520, February 2012

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Goodin D., Meet “Cupid,” the Heartbleed attack that spawns “evil” Wi-Fi networks, astechnica.com, June 2014

Downloads

Published

2014-09-30

How to Cite

Jerca, A.-S. (2014). OpenSSL vulnerabilities: the Heartbleed Bug and Cupid. Journal of Mobile, Embedded and Distributed Systems, 6(3), 122-128. Retrieved from http://jmeds.eu/index.php/jmeds/article/view/OpenSSL_Vulnerabilities%3A_the_Heartbleed_Bug_and_Cupid

Issue

Vol. 6 No. 3 (2014): Mobile and Cloud Technologies

Section

Articles

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