1. Venafi Enterprise Key and Certificate Management
presents.
What is Flame?
“One of the most complex threats ever discovered.”

2. What is Flame?
Flame’s creators used a Microsoft
certificate with an MD5 signature to
create a forged certificate with the
same MD5 signature.
This new forged certificate created
spoofed certificates, and also signed
parts of Flame’s code, making it
appear as if it all came from
Microsoft. This is what gave Flame
dangerous access to inter nal IT
systems.
Once on the network, Flame copies
d o c u m e n t s , re c o rd s k e y s t ro k e s ,
network data and verbal conversations.

3. Why This Matters
Flame was a specific attack that exploited MD5 certificates,
but the same technique can be used by anyone.
If you have MD5 certificates on your network, you are a
target for any attacker exploiting this flaw in MD5.
Continue to see how this all happened, and what you can
do to remediate it on you network.

4. “MD5 is no longer acceptable where collision resistance is required
such as digital signatures.”
Updated Security Considerations for the MD5 Message-Digest and the HMAC-MD5 Algorithms
Turner, S. and L. Chen

5. The Reason Signatures are Important
Signatures are made by a “signing algorithm.” Identical inputs get identical signatures:
And different inputs, even if only slightly different, produce totally different signatures:

6. As you’d expect, two unique certificates generate two unique signatures...
Unique signatures are how you identify and authenticate different certificates.

7. But what if your algorithm had a flaw which allowed two certificates to create
the same signature?

8. I’m Looking at the Man in
the Middle
Flame’s creators forged a certificate that contained the same signature trusted by
millions of computers. Let’s see this in action.

9. A simple scenario of how signatures keep you safe.
1. Client wants to connect, asks for a signed certificate.
2. The Man in the Middle server has an untrusted signature on its certificate. The client chooses not to connect.
3. The client knows it can trust this server because of the signed certificate.

10. Everything changes when signatures may not be unique.
1. Client wants to connect, asks for a signed certificate.
2. The Man in the Middle server has a forged signature and the client accepts the malicious connection. The
Man in the Middle can now intercept and relay all traffic.
3. The target server can’t tell the difference and accepts the connection, transmitting data as normal.

11. A man in the Middle server can:
1.Impersonate a server entirely.
2.Manipulate data as it is transferred.
3.Act as an invisible eavesdropper.

12. A Signature Problem
How an MD5 Signature is Forged
In the world of pen and ink, a signature is meant to represent an individual and to give authenticity to whatever
is signed.
Two unique people, two unique signatures.

13. How certificate signing should work:
If you have an authentic certificate, and a spoofed certificate, the different certificates should have different
signatures. In this case, we are using the SHA2 algorithm to make the signature. SHA2 doesn’t have the same
weakness that MD5 has.
Trusted Signature
Untrusted Signature

14. Two unique certificates, two unique signatures.
The signature cannot be forged.

15. What happens when it doesn’t work?
The fatal flaw in the MD5 algorithm is that a spoofed certificate can be manipulated to generate the same MD5
signature.

16. Two unique certificates, one shared signature.
The signature is now forged.
This is the key vulnerability in
MD5 exploited by Flame.

17. “It’s imperative that browsers and CAs
stop using MD5”
Marc Stevens, 2008 - Cryptology Group, CWI

18. The Bad News
450 organizations, a sample of the Global 2000, had their networks
assessed for MD5 certificate vulnerability.
17.4 % of the certificates found were signed using MD5. Venafi Assessor MD5 Report, June 2012

19. Think about that number for a minute.
17%
Roughly 17 in 100...
Are susceptible to the same attack
that made Flame possible.

20. Hiding on your network.
“Shhhhh...”

21. “The risk-based evaluation your company needs to make right now
is not about your vulnerability to the Flame virus; it is about your
vulnerability to MD5-signed certificates.”
June 27, 2012, Derek Brink, Aberdeen Group

22. The Good News
Introducing Venafi MD5 Certificate Assessor™
We have developed a special version of Venafi Assessor™ that is targeted specifically to find
MD5 certificates and vulnerabilities and help you remediate them.

23. MD5 Certificate Assessor:
Scan and Locate MD5 Certificates
Find the risks so you can eliminate them.
Catch the High-Rick Vulnerabilities
Protect your company security and reputation.
Venafi Assessor is 100% Free
Generate your personalized report at no cost.
Venafi provides cutting edge enterprise key
and certificate management to the world’s
largest corporations and government bodies.
Any key. Any certificate. Anywhere.
Get Venafi MD5 Assessor

24. 1. Download Venafi MD5 Certificate Assessor, and simply enter the IP and port range you want to scan.
2. Let the free tool run a secure, anonymous survey.
3. You will receive an instant report showing you the breakdown of the MD5 certificates on you network.

25. Assess your MD5 risk fast and
easy.
Venafi MD5 Certificate Assessor
runs within its own VM on your
network. Simply specify IP/port
ranges and let Assessor discover
certificates across your network
and generate risk profile reports
for you.

26. The Venafi MD5 certificate
Assessor Risk Report
Identify areas of risk and
vulnerability with the insights
that Assessor provides:
-Discovery population details
-Certificates by CA
-Ports that respond to SSL or
-STARTTLS handshakes
-Days before certificates expire
-Certificate validity periods
-Certificate key lengths
-Signing algorithms
-Wildcard certificates
-Multiple certificate instances

27. Prevent outages, breaches &
mitigate risks with Venafi.
Venafi offers the only EKCM
(enterprise key and certificate
management) platform that
is:
-Vendor Neutral
-Independent & universal
-A full lifecycle management

28. Will Flame burn
your image?

29. Alarming Increase in Security Breaches
– No Longer a Hypothetical Risk
360,000 Customer Accounts Breached
Estimated Cost $250 Million
Tokens Compromised Replacing All
Estimated Cost $100 Million 90,000 Military Emails
Breached (md5)
‘Directors Desk’ Attack Substantial Cost and
NSA Investigating Network Breach Reputation Damage
Reputational Damage
Jan 2011 Feb 2011 March 2011 April 2011 May 2011 June 2011 July 2011 May 2012
PlayStation Network Fraudulently Issued
Breached Estimated Domain Certificates
Cost + $1 Billion Multiple Email
Breaches Suspended Operations
SQL Injection Attack
Millions of Email Accounts Flame Malware attacks
Estimated Cost $4 Billion computers running the
Fraudulent Issue 7 Domains Microsoft Windows
Substantial Reputation Damage operating system
Reputation Damage
© 2011 Venafi Proprietary and Confidential

30. Don’t make
Damage control the only
constant in you cyber defense.

31. Stuxnet infected Chevron
Gauss
Flame Reported: (8-nov)
Duqu
miniFlame
Elvis
Barbara
Tiffany
Fiona
Sonia
Sam
Eve
Drake
Charles
Alex

32. Let us help today!
Get the sample report and one-sheet
on Venafi MDF Certificate AssessorTM