nanog mailing list archives

RE: SHA1 collisions proven possisble


From: "Keith Medcalf" <kmedcalf () dessus com>
Date: Sun, 26 Feb 2017 21:02:48 -0700



On Sunday, 26 February, 2017 19:16 Matt Palmer <mpalmer () hezmatt org> said:
On Sun, Feb 26, 2017 at 05:41:47PM -0600, Brett Frankenberger wrote:
On Sun, Feb 26, 2017 at 12:18:48PM -0500, Patrick W. Gilmore wrote:
I repeat something I've said a couple times in this thread: If I can
somehow create two docs with the same hash, and somehow con someone
into using one of them, chances are there are bigger problems than a
SHA1 hash collision.

If you assume I could somehow get Verisign to use a cert I created to
match another cert with the same hash, why in the hell would that
matter?  I HAVE THE ONE VERISIGN IS USING.  Game over.

Valdis came up with a possible use of such documents. While I do not
think there is zero utility in those instances, they are pretty small
vectors compared to, say, having a root cert at a major CA.

I want a google.com cert.  I ask a CA to sign my fake google.com
certificate.  They decline, because I can't prove I control google.com.

Even better: I want a CA cert.  I convince a CA to issue me a regular,
end-entity cert for `example.com` (which I control) in such a way that I
can
generate another cert with the same SHA1 hash, but which has `CA:TRUE` for
the Basic Constraints extension.

Wham!  I can now generate certs for *EVERYONE*.  At least until someone
notices and takes away my shiny new toy...

So you would need 6000 years of computer time to compute the collision on the SHA1 signature, and how much additional 
time to compute the trapdoor (private) key, in order for the cert to be of any use?






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