¿Qué es Heartbleed?
Es una vulnerabilidad muy seria que existe en la librería criptográfica Open SSL. Esta vulnerabilidad permite que se pueda robar información, que en otras circunstancias es protegida por la encriptación SSL/TLS.
Esta vulnerabilidad a cualquier persona en Internet leer la memoria de los sistemas protegidos por versiones vulnerables del protocolo Open SSL.
Es decir que cualquier persona con los conocimientos adecuados puede robar tu información aún cuando esté protegida bajo el protocolo SSL, permitiendo así que se den robos de identidad, de información y otros tipos más.
Esta vulnerabilidad ha sido utilizada por la NSA durante años para poder conseguir información de los usuarios de algunos sitios web con el objetivo de proteger la seguridad de los Estados Unidos, pero está claro que les interesa más conocer lo que la gente hace. Pero esa es otra historia que abordaré en otra publicación más adelante. (¿Les suena la propuesta de Ley Peña-Televisa?)
¿Cómo te afecta esta vulnerabilidad?
Open SSL es la librería criptográfica más utilizada para proteger la información en Internet, por lo que puede ser utilizada por tu sitio web empresarial, tu red social, tu blog, etc.
Esto significa que tú como usuario final o visitante, no eres quien va a reparar esta vulnerabilidad. Lo tienen que hacer las empresas que usan esa librería. En estos momentos ya fue liberado un parche que corrige esa vulnerabilidad y que cada vez más empresas que fueron vulnerables están implementando.
Como en este caso la empresa Issuu, que lo hace saber a través de este comunicado.
Dear Issuu customer,
On April 7, the OpenSSL project issued a Security Advisory that detailed a serious vulnerability in the encryption software in use by a large percentage of the internet. This vulnerability (nicknamed «Heartbleed») would potentially allow attackers to retrieve information from encrypted SSL endpoints. For more information on this vulnerability visit http://heartbleed.com.
While we do not believe any of our customer accounts have been compromised, we have taken steps to secure Issuu’s infrastructure against this vulnerability by patching our servers and updating our SSL certificates. As an extra precaution we recommend each of our customers take a moment to reset their passwords.
We will continue to monitor this situation and secure our service against this vulnerability.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us any time at support@issuu.com.
Sincerely,
Christian Sejersen
VP, Engineering
Si desean conocer más sobre esta vulnerabilidad, pueden consultar el sitio web oficial: http://heartbleed.com/
Actualización 14 de Abril
Esta es otra carta recibida de otro sitio muy conocido que tenía dicha vulnerabilidad pero que ya la han corregido, CloudFlare:
You’re protected from the Heartbleed vulnerability because you have CloudFlare turned on for your website. We fixed the flaw on March 31 for all CloudFlare customers, a week before it was publicly announced.
Heartbleed (CVE-2014-0160, http://www.openssl.org/) is a flaw in OpenSSL, encryption software used by the vast majority of websites to protect sensitive information. This vulnerability in OpenSSL allows an attacker to reveal up to 64KB of memory to a connected client or server. This flaw could expose sensitive data such as passwords or usernames – even when you thought it was encrypted.
NO IMPACT ON CLOUDFLARE SERVICE. Our team has conducted a comprehensive security review to ensure our customers were not impacted. One concern is that an attacker had access to the exploit before March 31 since the flaw was present since December 2011. We’ve seen no evidence of this, but we’re proceeding as if it is a possibility.
PRIVATE KEY DATA. Our security and cryptographic team has been testing the possibility that private SSL key data may have been retrieved. We have been unable to replicate a situation where private SSL key data would leak. We have set up a challenge to see if others can exploit the bug. See more information on our blog:
NEW CERTIFICATES FOR EVERYONE. Even though we have not been able to use the exploit to leak public key data, we’re proceeding out of an abundance of caution. We’ve begun the process of reissuing and revoking the keys CloudFlare manages on behalf of our customers. To ensure that we don’t overburden the certificate authority resources given the scale at which CloudFlare operates, we are staging this process. We expect that it will be complete by early next week.
GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS FOR SAFE WEB HYGIENE There are some precautions you can take to protect yourself from the Heartbleed bug.
1. GET CUSTOM CERTIFICATES ISSUED. If you’re using CloudFlare custom certificates, have your certificate authority reissue you a new certificate. After it is installed and confirmed working, revoke all previous certificates.
2. UPGRADE OPENSSL ON YOUR SERVER. While CloudFlare is protecting your server from receiving Heartbleed attacks, you should still upgrade to the latest version of OpenSSL as soon as possible. Get version 1.0.1g here:
If you can’t upgrade immediately, you can recompile OpenSSL with -DOPENSSL_NO_HEARTBEATS.
3. CHANGE PASSWORDS. Even with these fixes, we recommend that you change your password for CloudFlare and any other online services you may use. You should also consider enabling 2-factor authentication, which will help protect your account even if your password is compromised.
MORE INFORMATION AND FAQs. We have documented Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) here:
If you have further questions, please contact www.cloudflare.com/support
CloudFlare was one of the companies originally contacted by the researchers who discovered the bug and has been working closely to ensure that sites are protected. This is a serious issue for the Internet as a whole and, as we learn more details, we’ll continue to update you on actions you can take to protect your online presence.
Thanks again for your support!
The CloudFlare Team
Así que no todo es tan seguro como parece, es por eso que a la hora de pensar tener un sitio web es bueno pensar en todos los posibles escenarios de contingencia y tener planes de acción para cada uno de ellos, así como contar con profesionales que los puedan corregir en el menor tiempo posible.
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