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Original release date: October 25, 2000 13:39:00 EDT<BR>
Last revised: October 25, 2000 14:12:23 EDT<BR>
Source: Sun Microsystems; CERT/CC<BR>

<P>A complete revision history is at the end of this file.

<A NAME="affected">
<H3>Systems Affected</H3>


<UL>
<LI>Systems relying on the validity of the Sun Microsystems
certificates mentioned below</LI>
</UL>

<A NAME="overview">
<H2>Overview</H2>

<P>To aid in the wide distribution of essential security information,
the CERT Coordination Center is forwarding the following information
from Sun Microsystems.  Sun urges you to act on this information as
soon as possible.  Contact information for the Sun security team can
be found in their bulletin, which is referenced in the <A
HREF="#vendors">vendor appendix</A> to this document.

<A NAME="description">
<H2>I. Description</H2>

<P>The description below is an excerpt from <A
HREF="http://sunsolve.Sun.COM/pub-cgi/retrieve.pl?doctype=coll&doc=secbull/198&type=0&nav=sec.sba">Sun
Security Bulletin 198</A>.  The original text can be found <A
HREF="CA-2000-19/sun-advisory.asc">here</A>.

<TABLE>
<TR>
<TD BGCOLOR="#000000" WIDTH=1>|</TD>
<TD BGCOLOR="#DFDFDF" WIDTH=100%>
<FONT FACE="Verdana" COLOR="#004A6B"><SMALL>

<HR NOSHADE>

<CENTER>Sun Microsystems, Inc. Security Bulletin</CENTER>
Bulletin Number:        #00198<BR>
Date:                   October 24, 2000<BR>
Cross-Ref:              <BR>
Title:                  Browser Certificates<BR>
<HR NOSHADE>

<OL>
<LI><H4>Bulletin Topics</H4> 

<P>Sun advises of a potential compromise of 2 specific security
certificates which had limited distribution.  

<P>Sun recommends that you follow the directions found at <A
HREF="http://sunsolve5.sun.com/secbull/certificate_howto.html">
http://sunsolve5.sun.com/secbull/certificate_howto.html</A> to
determine if your web browser has accepted any of the potentially
compromised certificates.

<P>
</LI>

<LI><H4>Who is Affected</H4>

<P>A web browser that has accepted a Sun certificate with one the following 
serial numbers:

<DL>
<DD>3181 B12D C422 5DAC A340 CF86 2710 ABE6 (Internet Explorer)
<DD>17:05:FB:13:A2:2F:9A:F3:C1:30:F5:62:6E:12:50:4C (Netscape)
</DL>
<P>
</LI>

<LI><H4>Understanding the Vulnerability</H4> 

<P>Web browsers accept security certificates from trusted sources.  A
specific certificate from Sun may have received outside exposure.

<P>Systems that encounter this certificate are potentially vulnerable
to attack from malicious applets, applications or components.

<P>
</LI>

<LI><H4>Corrective Action</H4>

<P>Follow the instructions at <A
HREF="http://sunsolve5.sun.com/secbull/certificate_howto.html">
http://sunsolve5.sun.com/secbull/certificate_howto.html</A> to
determine if your browser has accepted one of the potentially
compromised certificates.  If your browser contains this particular
certificate, follow the instructions to remove it.

<P>
</LI>
</OL>
 
<HR NOSHADE>
</TR>
</TABLE>

<H4>Additional information from the CERT/CC</H4>

Sun Microsystems has revoked the certificates with the following
serial numbers:

<DL>
<DD><A
HREF="https://digitalid.verisign.com/cgi-bin/Xquery.exe?issuerSerial=fdc300158c61bd7d959283bfe63b7805&Template=certByIssuer&form_file=../fdf/srv_userQueryResult.fdf&qmCompileAlways=yes"><PRE>3181 B12D C422 5DAC A340 CF86 2710 ABE6</PRE></A>

<DD><A
HREF="https://digitalid.verisign.com/cgi-bin/Xquery.exe?issuerSerial=5f3a31208612d4055e598564587b6034&Template=certByIssuer&form_file=../fdf/srv_userQueryResult.fdf&qmCompileAlways=yes"><PRE>1705 FB13 A22F 9AF3 C130 F562 6E12 504C</PRE></A>
</DL>

You can confirm the revocation of these certificates at <A
HREF="https://digitalid.verisign.com/services/server/search.htm">https://digitalid.verisign.com/services/server/search.htm</A>.

<A NAME="impact">
<H2>II. Impact</H2>

<P>Users who accept these certificates into their browser may
inadvertently run malicious code signed by the compromised
certificates.  Any such code would appear to be from Sun Microsystems,
thus creating a misleading sense of trust.

<A NAME="solution">
<H2>III. Solution</H2>

<H4>Remove the Compromised Certificates</H4>

<P>Sun Microsystems has provided identification information for the
compromised certificates as well as instructions on how to remove them
from common browsers.  Users should follow Sun's
<A HREF="http://sunsolve5.sun.com/secbull/certificate_howto.html">
instructions</A> to remove these certificates from
their browser and to prevent possible future addition.

<A NAME="vendors">

<H2>Appendix A. Vendor Information</H2>

<A NAME="sun">
<H4>Sun Microsystems</H4>

Sun's official copy of their bulletin can be found at: <DL><DD><A
HREF="http://sunsolve.Sun.COM/pub-cgi/retrieve.pl?doctype=coll&doc=secbull/198&type=0&nav=sec.sba">
http://sunsolve.Sun.COM/pub-cgi/retrieve.pl?doctype=coll&doc=secbull/198&type=0&nav=sec.sba
</A></DL>

<HR NOSHADE>

<P>The CERT Coordination Center thanks Sun Microsystems for bringing
this issue to our attention.

<P>

<HR NOSHADE>

<P>Author: The CERT/CC portions of this document were written by Jeffrey P. Lanza.
<A HREF="mailto:cert@cert.org?subject=CA-2000-19%20Feedback%20VU470543">
Feedback</A> on this advisory is appreciated.

<P>

<!--#include virtual="/include/footer_nocopyright.html" -->

<P>Copyright 2000 Carnegie Mellon University.</P>

<P>Revision History
<PRE>
October 25, 2000:  Initial release
October 25, 2000:  Updated author section and references to Sun Security Bulletin 198.
</PRE>