Firewall Wizards: RE: SSL

[Bruce Platt <Bruce () ei3 com>]

Paul D. Robertson wrote:


> I haven't played with nimda server->client since the day it 
> hit, so maybe
> my recollections are fuzzy, but it was my impression that the 
> window open
> in hottips.htm would create another GET request for readme.eml-  If it
> wasn't readme.eml, it was readme.exe.  In either case, that 
> GET request
> would expose its URL to an HTTPS proxy.  The quick (HTTP not
> HTTPS) window.open test I just did locally via my home proxy 
> confirms this
> behaviour, so please let me know if I'm missing something.

The window.open delivers the infected mail message which if one's Outlook is
vulnerable ...

> That's always been one of my arguments against packet 
> filtering firewalls
> for sole protection for organizations who are concerned about active
> content issues.  There's no surprise here for anyone who's 
> gamed this out
> before.  A proxy however is a different beast- since the packets are
> reassembled and parsed as such- the anti-javascript patches 
> to http-gw are
> an example of how to do this (though the code is very, very 
> ugly), it just
> needs an MITM attack to get the content in the clear (which 
> was one of my
> goals in life at one point that Fred so fondly remembers.)
Yup,  one does need the proxy to be a MITM to inspect the content, and the
pros and con's of that are too lengthy here.

> Server->server that's true, server->client the pages will 
> serve just as
> well over https as they do over HTTP, but that javascript-nuking http
> proxy won't be effective in the least if you connect to the server via
> HTTPS without an MITM attack.  
I want to make sure that people understand how vulnerable they are over
HTTPS.


> The point however is that at least thus far, people haven't 
> been willing
> to even ask for "every defense" when it comes to encrypted 
> traffic, and
> the balance between "privacy" for users and "security" for networks is
> increasingly going to become an issue.  
Violent agreement.
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