DigiNotar

Microsoft and Adobe released security fixes today, and Microsoft blacklisted six more root certificates in the wake of a breach at DigiNotar that allowed fraudulent SSL certificates to be issued.

As part of its monthly Patch Tuesday, Microsoft released five security bulletins, none of which are critical, plugging 15 holes. Affected software includes Windows, Office, Excel, SharePoint, Windows Server, and Office Web Apps.

More details are in the advisory, which Microsoft had accidentally posted online four days early before removing it to save it for today.

Meanwhile, Microsoft revoked certificates signed by two certificate authorities, Entrust and Cybertrust, which had … Read more

Following his recent attack against Dutch security company DigiNotar, the hacker known as Comodohacker is now threatening to exploit Microsoft's Windows Update service.

In another message posted on Pastebin last week touting his cyberattacks, the infamous hacker claims that he's able to issue phony Windows updates despite Microsoft's assertion to the contrary.

"I'm able to issue Windows update--Microsoft's statement about Windows Update and that I can't issue such update is totally false," proclaimed Comodohacker. "I already reversed ENTIRE Windows update protocol, how it reads XMLs via SSL which includes URL, KB … Read more

Apple has released a security update for OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and OS X 10.7 Lion that addresses an issue in which the use of fraudulent certificates could allow an attacker to steal user credentials and other private information through a network connection. The problem revolved around the use of DigiNotar as a trusted certificate authority, which has been removed by this update.

Certificates are a method of identifying a computer system or a user automatically without the need for an account and password. A certificate is generated by an authority and contains a key for encrypting … Read more

Google is telling people in Iran to change their passwords and take other security precautions in the wake of an Internet attack in which the google.com domain was spoofed.

"We learned last week that the compromise of a Dutch company involved with verifying the authenticity of websites could have put the Internet communications of many Iranians at risk, including their Gmail," Eric Grosse, Google's vice president of security engineering, wrote in a blog post last night.

"While Google's internal systems were not compromised, we are directly contacting possibly affected users and providing similar information … Read more

Firefox browser distributor Mozilla today gave companies that sell digital certificates a week to take actions to improve their security after a certificate authority (CA) was hacked and Gmail users in Iran were targeted in a recent attack.

When a Web surfer visits a site over a protected SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) connection, the browser provides a visual indication that the site is trusted--a green URL bar or padlock, usually--based on the digital certificate for the site. If the digital certificate, which is used to authenticate a site as legitimate, is revoked or has some other problem, the browser will … Read more

A second company that provides digital certificates used to authenticate Web sites won't be issuing them while it investigates whether it has been compromised as a hacker has claimed.

A hacker who goes by the alias "Ich Sun" has taken responsibility for a recent breach at Dutch certificate authority DigiNotar that resulted in more than 500 SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificates being fraudulently issued, including one that was used to spoof Google.com.

The self-proclaimed Iranian patriot, who was behind a hack on certificate authority Comodo this spring, says he has hacked four or more certificate authorities, … Read more

A hacker known as Comodohacker has taken responsibility for the recent attack against Dutch certificate authority DigiNotar and is now threatening to release fake security certificates for other companies that he has hacked.

Beyond issuing a phony certificate for Google.com, DigiNotar has admitted that the attack actually caused the company to issue more than 500 fake Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates for a variety of major organizations, including the CIA, MI6, Facebook, Microsoft, Skype, and Twitter.

SSL certificates are used to authenticate secure Web sites to ensure that users are connecting to the intended site. Faked certificates are especially … Read more

The number of fraudulent security certificates issued by a hacked Dutch firm has ballooned from the 247 reported last week to 531, and the main purpose of the attack appears to have been to spy on Iranian dissidents.

The list of domains for which fraudulent Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates were issued by DigiNotar, a root certificate authority, now includes sites such as the CIA, MI6, Facebook, Microsoft, Skype, Twitter, and WordPress, among others, according to a list released this weekend by the Dutch Ministry of Justice. In the wake of the new revelations, the Dutch government has reportedly expressed … Read more

For an unknown period of time this weekend, Gmail users in Iran who tried to access their accounts were at risk of having their log-in credentials stolen, after someone broke into a Dutch company to steal the digital equivalent of an identification card for Google.com.

"The people affected were primarily located in Iran," Google said in a post late last night. "The attacker used a fraudulent [Secure Sockets Layer] certificate issued by DigiNotar, a root certificate authority that should not issue certificates for Google (and has since revoked it)."

The problem surfaced yesterday after someone … Read more