GLSA 200910-01: Wget: Certificate validation error

Severity:normal
Title:Wget: Certificate validation error
Date:10/20/2009
Bugs: #286058
ID:200910-01

Synopsis

An error in the X.509 certificate handling of Wget might enable remote attackers to conduct man-in-the-middle attacks.

Background

GNU Wget is a free software package for retrieving files using HTTP, HTTPS and FTP, the most widely-used Internet protocols.

Affected packages

Package Vulnerable Unaffected Architecture(s)
net-misc/wget < 1.12 >= 1.12 All supported architectures

Description

The vendor reported that Wget does not properly handle Common Name (CN) fields in X.509 certificates that contain an ASCII NUL (\0) character. Specifically, the processing of such fields is stopped at the first occurrence of a NUL character. This type of vulnerability was recently discovered by Dan Kaminsky and Moxie Marlinspike.

Impact

A remote attacker might employ a specially crafted X.509 certificate, containing a NUL character in the Common Name field to conduct man-in-the-middle attacks on SSL connections made using Wget.

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

All Wget users should upgrade to the latest version:

    # emerge --sync
    # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=net-misc/wget-1.12"

References

Availability

This GLSA and any updates to it are available for viewing at the Gentoo Security Website: http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200910-01.xml

Concerns?

Security is a primary focus of Gentoo Linux and ensuring the confidentiality and security of our users machines is of utmost importance to us. Any security concerns should be addressed to security@gentoo.org or alternatively, you may file a bug at https://bugs.gentoo.org.

License

Copyright 2010 Gentoo Foundation, Inc; referenced text belongs to its owner(s). The contents of this document are licensed under the Creative Commons - Attribution / Share Alike license.

Thank you!