[Full-disclosure] Firefox 2.0.x: tracking unsuspecting users using TLS client certificates

[Alexander Klink]

Hi Peter,

On Fri, Sep 07, 2007 at 07:31:59AM -1000, Peter Besenbruch wrote:
> Alexander Klink wrote:
>  > ... I realised that you can do something with Firefox 2.0.x that
>  > you could not do with Firefox 1.5.x: track an unsuspecting user
>  > using TLS client certificates.
Actually, this summary is no longer true, works even better in 1.5 ;-)

> While I can see the same use here, it seems you are saying anyone could 
> have a look at certificates on your system, while cookies generally are 
> limited to viewing by the issuing domain. What I don't understand is if 
> there is a simple of knowing what certificate to ask for? For this to be 
No, you can't really 'ask' for a certificate - the user chooses it 
(or, in this case, the browser does so automatically).

> to issue a "give me all your stored certificates" command? The follow-on 
> link to Apache's cert-export page can't seem to do that. I made two 
> certs and the cert-export page grabbed that last one.
Correct, this is Firefox's way of automatically choosing one. I'd
suspect most users don't have any TLS client certificates though.

> Oh well, time to change Firefox's default certificate handling.
I agree: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=395399

Best regards,
  Alex
-- 
Dipl.-Math. Alexander Klink | IT-Security Engineer |    a.klink at cynops.de
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