USN-1197-4: NSS vulnerability
8 September 2011
A certificate authority mis-issued fraudulent certificates.
Releases
Packages
- nss - Network Security Service libraries
Details
USN-1197-1 and USN-1197-3 addressed an issue in Firefox and Xulrunner
pertaining to the Dutch Certificate Authority DigiNotar mis-issuing
fraudulent certificates. This update provides the corresponding update
for the Network Security Service libraries (NSS).
Original advisory details:
USN-1197-1
It was discovered that Dutch Certificate Authority DigiNotar, had
mis-issued multiple fraudulent certificates. These certificates could allow
an attacker to perform a "machine-in-the-middle" (MITM) attack which would make
the user believe their connection is secure, but is actually being
monitored.
For the protection of its users, Mozilla has removed the DigiNotar
certificate. Sites using certificates issued by DigiNotar will need to seek
another certificate vendor.
We are currently aware of a regression that blocks one of two Staat der
Nederlanden root certificates which are believed to still be secure. This
regression is being tracked at https://launchpad.net/bugs/838322.
USN-1197-3
USN-1197-1 partially addressed an issue with Dutch Certificate Authority
DigiNotar mis-issuing fraudulent certificates. This update actively
distrusts the DigiNotar root certificate as well as several intermediary
certificates. Also included in this list of distrusted certificates are the
"PKIOverheid" (PKIGovernment) intermediates under DigiNotar's control that
did not chain to DigiNotar's root and were not previously blocked.
Update instructions
The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following package versions:
Ubuntu 11.04
Ubuntu 10.10
Ubuntu 10.04
After a standard system update you need to restart any applications that
use NSS, such as Thunderbird or Evolution, to make all the necessary
changes.