# Re: "Java Plug-In Security Warning" dialog gone / broken under 1.2.2 px (FCS)?

Jan Luehe (luehe@laguna.eng.sun.com)
Thu, 22 Jul 1999 11:28:13 -0700 (PDT)

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    Message-Id: <199907221828.LAA03593@laguna.eng.sun.com>

    Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1999 11:28:13 -0700 (PDT)

    From: Jan Luehe <luehe@laguna.eng.sun.com>

    Subject: Re: "Java Plug-In Security Warning" dialog gone / broken under  1.2.2 px (FCS)?

    To: java-security@java.sun.com, cforster@i-review.com

Hi Chris:

I was able to reproduce your problem. Here's an explanation that might
help you understand what has changed between JRE 1.2.2 RC and JRE
1.2.2 FCS.

In the 1.2.2 RC release, the Plug-in verified an applet's certificate
chain as follows:

Starting with the (leaf) certificate at the bottom of the chain, we
verified the signature of each certificate using the public key of the
certificate at the next level higher up in the chain, until we reached
the self-signed Root CA certificate at the top of the chain.

Then we checked if the signature of that Root CA certificate could be
verified using the public key of a certificate contained in the
browser's CA store. We used the CertGetIssuerCertificateFromStore()
CAPI function to do that. Here's a description of what that function
does:

The CertGetIssuerCertificateFromStore function retrieves the
certificate context from the certificate store for the first or next
issuer of the specified subject certificate (see
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/sdkdoc/crypto/1ref_functions_0oo5.htm
for more info).

We passed these to flags to that function:

CERT_STORE_SIGNATURE_FLAG: Uses the public key in the issuer's
certificate to verify the signature on the subject certificate.

CERT_STORE_TIME_VALIDITY_FLAG: Gets the current time and verifies that
it is within the subject certificate's validity period.

However, this function does not seem to work properly in the case of
self-signed certificates: The function would indicate success even if
there was no appropriate certificate in the CA store.

Someone exploited this (CAPI) bug by creating a self-signed certificate
and choosing any name they wanted for the certificate subject/issuer
(in the case I am referring to, they chose "Sun Microsystems
CA"). Then they used that certificate to sign an applet and loaded the
applet using the Plug-in. Contrary to expectation, the Plug-in popped
up the security dialog, informing the user that the applet's signer
had been authenticated as "Sun Microsystems CA", and asking the user
if they wanted to grant all permissions to the applet. This was a
very serious security hole.

The problem appeared only on Windows NT, but not on Windows 98.

Since we could not rely on the above CAPI API, we took a more conservative
approach to fix the problem: We now enumerate through all the
certificates in the CA store to see if there is one whose encoding
matches that of the Root CA certificate of the applet certificate chain.

I noticed that in your case, the Root CA certificate (belonging to
"OU=Class 3 Public Primary Certification Authority, O="VeriSign,
Inc.", C=US") in the applet certificate chain is different from that
owner's certificate in the CA store (for example, the validity
timeframes are different), even though their public keys are the
same. That means that their encodings are different.
Therefore, you don't get the pop-up window. (I noticed your
version of the VeriSign Class 3 certificate expires on Fri Dec 31
15:59:59 PST 1999, whereas the one in IE's CA store is valid until
2004.)

Here is what you could do to get your applet to work with JRE 1.2.2 FCS:
Replace the VeriSign Class 3 certificate in Netscape with the one from
IE's CA store. Then re-import your object signing certificate (issued
by VeriSign). This should establish a certificate chain with the new
VeriSign certificate at the top.

Please let us know if that works for you.

Jan

> X-Sender: cforster@postoffice.i-review.com
> Mime-Version: 1.0
> Date: Wed, 21 Jul 1999 16:13:43 -0500
> To: java-security@java.sun.com
> From: "Christian M. Forster" <cforster@i-review.com>
> Subject: "Java Plug-In Security Warning" dialog gone / broken under 1.2.2 px
(FCS)?
> X-Attachments: D:\VCDBE30\Projects\Signtest\JApplet1.java;
D:\VCDBE30\Projects\Signtest\JApplet1.htm;
>
> I've just subscribed to this list, so could any replies also CC me directly.
> Thanks! I've also searched the list archive for info.
>
> I submitted this to JDC -> Bugs (review ID: 88143, 3-week backlog?!), but I
> need to deliver a commercial beta applet/JAR that relies on 1.2.2 & the Java
> Plug-In Security Warning dialog by the end of this August & this is a
> show-stopper! I've also EMailed one member of the Plug-In Team directly,
> but I'm deperate for a confirmation or response! I know Jan L. sees this
> list and has been very responsive.
>
> The problem: My Class 3 Verisign Netscape Object Signing cert - signed JARs
> work fine under the 1.2.2 RC1 plugin (Plug-In jre 1.2.2 pu) showing the
> security dialog and allowing the user to grant rights, but fail to show the
> dialog at all on clean machines with 1.2.2 production plugin (Plug-In jre
> 1.2.2 px).
>
> The steps I took:
> 1) Compile 1.2 code to a classes directory,
> 2) Use Netscape's signtool (w/Verisign class 3 cert) to JAR (ZIP) the class
> files & sign the resultant JAR like this:
> signtool -da: -k "Our Co. Name" -Z Jarname.jar classdir
> 3) In a separate test, tried signing the directory & using pkzip to package
> the JAR. Same problem.
>
> The JAR is signed by my company's new Class 3 Verisign cert, no security
> dialog is presented under 1.2.2 FCS and if I press the "Show Dialog" button
> in the presented JInternalFrame (see sample code attached), an option dialog
> shows with the yellow banner at the bottom (untrusted).
>
> If I try the same JAR on Win95 machines with JRE 1.2.2 RC1 (pu), they
> properly show the security dialog... machines with JRE 1.2.2 FCS (px) do
> not.... . The JAR was compiled with jdk 1.2.2FCS and JARed/signed with
> Netscape's signtool. If I install 1.2.2 RC1 (plug-in ver. 1.2.2 pu) over
> 1.2.2 FCS (plug-in ver. 1.2.2 px) on the machines, the Security Dialog shows
> and all is well, but obviously I cannot ship under a RC release.
>
> Perhaps the required signing procedure has changed from 1.2.2 RC -> 1.2.2
> FCS or I'm overlooking something, but I've read & tried everything I can
> think of and can't get the dialog to show under 1.2.2 FCS. I checked the
> cacerts (identical under RC1 & FCS) and my browsers certs DB (IE 4, NN 4).
> All the relevant Versign CA certs are enabled.
>
> Again, any suggestions would be appreciated. I can send along the signed JAR
> file to anyone that wants to try it.
>
> Has anyone seen the "Java Plug-In Security Warning" dialog presented by the
> 1.2.2 FCS plugin? I'd appreciate hearing the creation & environment details.
>
> I've read & followed
> http://java.sun.com/products/plugin/1.2/docs/nsobjsigning.html and
> http://java.sun.com/products/plugin/1.2/docs/netscape.html and I'm worried
> that the addition of the new "usePolicy" runtime permission may have broken
> the facility.
>
> Thanks,
> Chris
>
>

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