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Thread ID: 100392 2009-06-06 01:20:00 TelstraClear Cable / Certificate Errors Erayd (23) PC World Chat
Post ID Timestamp Content User
779988 2009-06-06 01:20:00 Hi guys,

Has anyone else on TelstraClear cable noticed certificate warnings when attempting to connect to SSL websites this morning?

From my perspective, this looks like a MITM attack from the TelstraClear network - possibly one of their routers or proxy servers has been compromised. Whatever was using this certificate tried to intercept my connections for around 5 minutes, then my internet service dropped completely for a few seconds. When it came back, the bad certificate had vanished.

The certificate in question was issued for localhost / Apache HTTP Server. It was issued 13/02/2009 and expires 13/02/2010. The SHA1 fingerprint is ff:9b:b9:fa:f0:33:15:30:a6:6a:b3:a6:27:dc:35:58:eb :5a:c2:f0.

If you did allow connections using this certificate, I *strongly* recommend you change the passwords for any site you used during this period.

Cheers,
Erayd
Erayd (23)
779989 2009-06-06 01:26:00 Hi guys,

Has anyone else on TelstraClear cable noticed certificate warnings when attempting to connect to SSL websites this morning?

From my perspective, this looks like a MITM attack from the TelstraClear network - possibly one of their routers or proxy servers has been compromised. Whatever was using this certificate tried to intercept my connections for around 5 minutes, then my internet service dropped completely for a few seconds. When it came back, the bad certificate had vanished.

The certificate in question was issued for localhost / Apache HTTP Server. It was issued 13/02/2009 and expires 13/02/2010. The SHA1 fingerprint is ff:9b:b9:fa:f0:33:15:30:a6:6a:b3:a6:27:dc:35:58:eb :5a:c2:f0.

If you did allow connections using this certificate, I *strongly* recommend you change the passwords for any site you used during this period.

Cheers,
Erayd

What time did this happen?
somebody (208)
779990 2009-06-06 01:30:00 Around 12:10pm this afternoon. I've called TelstraClear, their guy in Auckland spent 5 mins looking at their routers and decided nothing was wrong, but there's no way you can check every node between me & the rest of the world in 5 minutes, even on a small network, and especially not on a network the size of TelstraClear's. Erayd (23)
779991 2009-06-06 08:48:00 Had a load of customers ringing me with this from Telecom last week or so and also one o Woosh when he tried his Kiwibank account page too. pctek (84)
779992 2009-06-06 09:17:00 I'm with Telecom and had a similar issue last week.
AIRI the message related to an expired certificate.
Sweep (90)
779993 2009-06-06 09:43:00 if you see it again the do a trace route to the end point, see what happens.

also have a good look at the cert chain.
robsonde (120)
779994 2009-06-06 09:46:00 TraceRoutes wont specifically show you if one of the nodes along the way is doing a MITM attack for SSL websites...

All sounds very dodgy to me :-/
Chilling_Silence (9)
779995 2009-06-07 03:30:00 if you see it again the do a trace route to the end point, see what happens.

also have a good look at the cert chain.
I did look at the cert chain - there wasn't one, it was self-signed. My guess is they were hoping to get clueless users who just click any old thing to make the problem go away.

Edit: Traceroute is a good idea (didn't think of it at the time though) but it's unlikely to reveal much, nothing that this was a MITM attack rather than endpoint replacement.
Erayd (23)
779996 2009-06-07 08:02:00 I did look at the cert chain - there wasn't one, it was self-signed. My guess is they were hoping to get clueless users who just click any old thing to make the problem go away.

Edit: Traceroute is a good idea (didn't think of it at the time though) but it's unlikely to reveal much, nothing that this was a MITM attack rather than endpoint replacement.

that was kind of my question...

is this a MITM or is some doing a sloppy end point re-driect...
robsonde (120)
779997 2009-06-07 08:12:00 Would a compromised DNS server be a possibility here Erayd? I.e. redirecting whatever secure URL to another server? somebody (208)
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