Having fun with certificates

Unless you went on vacation without WiFi access, your iPhone and your BlackBerry, you certainly have heard of the latest "Internet is dead" issue.

All details are available here and there. A comprehensive analysis is available on O'Reilly blog. A summary is available on ISC blog.

Now this is where C# beauty comes into play. Here is a code snippet that will check from local certificate store(s) the signature algorithm used. Everything that is not sha1RSA is displayed, because it should be bad (according to Microsoft analysis).

using System;
using System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates;

namespace SearchCerts
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
// *** select appropriate store below ***
//var store = new X509Store(StoreName.My);
//var store = new X509Store(StoreName.AuthRoot);
//var store = new X509Store(StoreName.CertificateAuthority);
//var store = new X509Store(StoreName.Root);
//var store = new X509Store(StoreName.TrustedPeople);
//var store = new X509Store(StoreName.TrustedPublisher);

store.Open(OpenFlags.OpenExistingOnly | OpenFlags.ReadOnly);
foreach (var cert in store.Certificates)
{
if (cert.SignatureAlgorithm.FriendlyName != "sha1RSA")
{
System.Console.WriteLine("------------------------------");
System.Console.WriteLine("[FriendlyName]\t" + cert.FriendlyName);
System.Console.WriteLine("[Issuer]\t" + cert.Issuer);
System.Console.WriteLine("[Subject]\t" + cert.Subject);
System.Console.WriteLine("[Signature]\t" + cert.SignatureAlgorithm.FriendlyName);
}
}
store.Close();
System.Console.WriteLine("finished");
System.Console.ReadLine();
}
}
}

Here are some results from my certificate stores. Your mileage may vary.

Freephonie PKI is using MD5. End-users cannot submit CSRs by themselves, so the risk remains low. I'd be glad to know if the Freebox itself can send CSRs.

[FriendlyName]
[Issuer] O=Free, L=Paris, S=France, C=FR
[Subject] CN=1234567, O=Free, L=Paris, S=France, C=FR
[Signature] md5RSA

CNRS-Standard and CNRS-Plus PKI are using MD5. This is more concerning, because those are widely used authorities, and users can request certificates "at will".

[FriendlyName]
[Issuer] CN=CNRS, O=CNRS, C=FR
[Subject] CN=CNRS-Plus, O=CNRS, C=FR
[Signature] md5RSA

[FriendlyName]
[Issuer] CN=CNRS, O=CNRS, C=FR
[Subject] CN=CNRS-Standard, O=CNRS, C=FR
[Signature] md5RSA

Microsoft drivers signing PKI (at least on Windows XP SP2). Since drivers developers can ask for signatures, this is concerning too. But I feel that this authority might not be used by Microsoft anymore for newer signatures, given its old age.

[FriendlyName]
[Issuer] CN=Microsoft Root Authority, OU=Microsoft Corporation, OU=Copyright (c) 1997 Microsoft Corp.
[Subject] CN=Microsoft Windows Hardware Compatibility, OU=Microsoft Corporation, OU=Microsoft Windows Hardware Compatibility Intermediate CA, OU=Copyright (c) 1997 Microsoft Corp.
[Signature] md5RSA

Some random foreign authorities, which are using obscure certification policies.

[FriendlyName] NetLock Uzleti (Class B) Tanusitvanykiado
[Issuer] CN=NetLock Uzleti (Class B) Tanusitvanykiado, OU=Tanusitvanykiadok, O=NetLock Halozatbiztonsagi Kft., L=Budapest, C=HU
[Subject] CN=NetLock Uzleti (Class B) Tanusitvanykiado, OU=Tanusitvanykiadok, O=NetLock Halozatbiztonsagi Kft., L=Budapest, C=HU
[Signature] md5RSA

And last but not least, this VeriSign authority is using ... MD2 (this is not the only one, unfortunately).

[FriendlyName] VeriSign
[Issuer] OU=VeriSign Commercial Software Publishers CA, O="VeriSign, Inc.", L=Internet
[Subject] OU=VeriSign Commercial Software Publishers CA, O="VeriSign, Inc.", L=Internet
[Signature] md2RSA

PS. impots.gouv.fr is NOT vulnerable ;)