ietf-dkim
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: [ietf-dkim] Deployment Scenario 7: Cryptographic Upgrade and Downgrade Attacks

2007-02-25 06:14:59
On Fri, 23 Feb 2007 18:54:24 -0000, Hallam-Baker, Phillip <pbaker(_at_)verisign(_dot_)com> wrote:

Legitimate sender advertises key records A, B. Record A describes a signature key for a widely supported signature algorithm. Record B describes a signature key for a signature algorithm that is not generally supported. The senders signature policy says 'I always sign every message'. The sender always signs messages with algorithm A (whether algorithm B is used by the legitimate sender as an additional algorithm or not does not affect the success of the attack).

Note that this attack also works for minor changes to the way some signature algorithm is used. For example, B might be a new canonicalization algorithm introduced because the existing ones were failing too often due to unanticipated mungings by intermediate sites.

--
Charles H. Lindsey ---------At Home, doing my own thing------------------------
Tel: +44 161 436 6131     Web: http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~chl
Email: chl(_at_)clerew(_dot_)man(_dot_)ac(_dot_)uk      Snail: 5 Clerewood Ave, CHEADLE, SK8 3JU, U.K.
PGP: 2C15F1A9      Fingerprint: 73 6D C2 51 93 A0 01 E7 65 E8 64 7E 14 A4 AB A5
_______________________________________________
NOTE WELL: This list operates according to http://mipassoc.org/dkim/ietf-list-rules.html

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>