Description

Netty: TOCTOU in OcspServerCertificateValidator

Summary

Netty's OcspServerCertificateValidator forwards the SslHandshakeCompletionEvent before the asynchronous OCSP validation completes. This allows the client's downstream handlers to send sensitive application data (e.g., HTTP requests) to a revoked server before the channel is closed by the OCSP check.

Details

In io.netty.handler.ssl.ocsp.OcspServerCertificateValidator#userEventTriggered, when an SslHandshakeCompletionEvent is received, the validator immediately calls ctx.fireUserEventTriggered(evt). It then initiates an asynchronous OCSP query using OcspClient.query.

Because the handshake completion event is forwarded immediately, downstream handlers in the client's pipeline are notified that the TLS handshake is successful. They may then begin reading and processing incoming application data or sending outgoing data. If the OCSP response later indicates the server's certificate is REVOKED, the validator closes the channel, but by this time, the client may have already leaked sensitive data to a revoked server or processed malicious responses from it.

PoC

    @Test
    public void test() throws Exception {
        EventLoopGroup group = new MultiThreadIoEventLoopGroup(NioIoHandler.newFactory());
        try {
            OCSPRespBuilder respBuilder = new OCSPRespBuilder();
            OCSPResp response = respBuilder.build(OCSPRespBuilder.INTERNAL_ERROR, null);
            byte[] responseEncoded = response.getEncoded();
...
Show more

Impact

TOCTOU. Client applications relying on OcspServerCertificateValidator to enforce server certificate revocation are impacted. A malicious server with a revoked certificate can successfully establish a TLS connection and receive sensitive application data from the client (or send malicious data to it) during the window between the TLS handshake completing and the asynchronous OCSP check failing.

Mitigation

Aliases

References