Severe damage, no. But real problems, yes.
Marketscore did this in a very sneaky fashion (most users were not
aware of the SSL mitm proxy), and it caused Internet Banking to be
made deliberately unavailable for affected customers:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU0503/S00167.htm
Cutting users off is the only way to protect affected victims from
outfits like Marketscore. If Marketscore had been like Sony
installing their malware in a more coordinated fashion, it would have
caused mass problems.
However, the MITM attack vector isn't the reason for SSL
certificates. It's about trust - whether you trust the end site, and
to a lesser extent, protecting the conversation from casual
eavesdroppers, such as wireless hotspots and so on. In these roles,
SSL does a reasonable job for the money.
thanks,
Andrew
On 31/01/2006, at 3:47 AM, Ace123 wrote:
> I came across this article http://iang.org/ssl/mallory_wolf.html which
> is the third in google search's response to "ssl mitm". It says there
> havent been any (major?) SSL MITM attacks so far (Article is dated Mar
> 2003), and so spending on buying a ssl server cert is just waste of
> money. I am no way convinced with this guy's argument, but to think of
> it - are there any real world SSL MITM attacks recorded in the recent
> history that caused a severe damage to anyone?
>
> thanks!
>
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Received on Jan 30 2006
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