FYI RSA DATA SECURITY WORKS WITH INTERNET SOFTWARE VENDORS TO RESPON 6/26/98 7:19 to Potential Security Attack on Secure Web Communications SAN MATEO, Calif., June 26 /PRNewswire/ -- RSA Data Security, Inc. today announced it is working with a group of leading Internet software vendors on pre-emptive countermeasures to thwart a newly-discovered potential attack against secure Web communications. This vulnerability is currently the subject of research and has not been reported by any users. These countermeasures enhance the security of popular Internet server software products based on the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol. The countermeasures are, or will be, available from respective vendors' Web sites, and include configuration guidelines, software updates where applicable and additional information. Currently available vendor information may be found at the following sites: * C2Net Software, Inc. http://www.c2.net * Consensus Development Corporation http://www.consensus.com/ssl-rsa.html * IBM Corporation http://www.ibm.com/security * Lotus Development Corporation http://www.lotus.com/security * Microsoft Corporation http://www.microsoft.com/security * Netscape Communications Corporation http://help.netscape.com/products/server/ssldiscovery/index.html * Open Market, Inc. http://www.openmarket.com/security * RSA Data Security, Inc. http://www.rsa.com/rsalabs/ RSA will also maintain an updated list of all vendors' countermeasure site links at its site. In addition, RSA has been working closely with the CERT Coordination Center on this problem. CERT has made a technical advisory on this vulnerability available at http://www.cert.org. These countermeasures address a potential vulnerability discovered by cryptographer Daniel Bleichenbacher of the Secure Systems Research Department of Bell Labs, the research and development arm of Lucent Technologies. Bleichenbacher identified a cryptanalytic vulnerability that could potentially be used to discover the key for a particular encrypted session through a process of repeatedly sending on the order of one million carefully constructed messages to a target server and observing the server's response. Due to the large number of messages needed, the potential attack is detectable by network administrators. Additional information is available on the Bell Labs Web site at http://www.bell-labs.com. The vulnerability affects interactive key establishment protocols that use the Public Key Cryptography Standard (PKCS) #1, including SSL. The PKCS series of standards are defined by RSA Laboratories, reviewed by industry and have been adopted by many major vendors of information systems and incorporated in national and international standards. The vulnerability does not apply to PKCS #1-based secure messaging protocols, such as Secure Electronic Transactions (SET) and Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension (S/MIME) because they are not susceptible to, or already implement mechanisms preventing this potential vulnerability. A technical overview of the attack and recommended countermeasures for installed SSL-based server software are available now on the RSA Labs Web site at http://www.rsa.com/rsalabs/. Software developers interested in testing their products for this potential vulnerability should visit RSA's site at http://www.rsa.com where they can find diagnostic instructions and prescriptive information for updating their applications. In July, RSA plans to provide developers using the company's BSAFE security suite with free software enhancements designed to eliminate this threat. RSA Laboratories plans to release for comment a draft PKCS #1 v2 in July following a revision process that began early in the year. RSA Data Security, Inc. RSA Data Security, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Security Dynamics Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: SDTI), is a leading supplier of software components that secure electronic data, with more than 300 million copies of RSA encryption and authentication technologies installed worldwide. RSA technologies are part of existing and proposed standards for the Internet and World Wide Web, ISO, ITU-T, ANSI, IEEE, and business, financial and electronic commerce networks around the globe. RSA develops and markets platform- independent security components and related developer kits and provides comprehensive cryptographic consulting services. RSA can be reached at http://www.rsa.com. All products and companies mentioned herein may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holdings and are hereby recognized. SOURCE RSA Data Security, Inc. -0- 06/26/98 /CONTACT: Patrick Corman, Corman Communications, 650-326-9648, patrick@cormancom.com/ /Web site: http://www.rsa.com/ (SDTI) CO: RSA Data Security, Inc. ST: California IN: CPR SU: -0- (PRN) Jun/26/98 07:03 EOS (PRN) Jun/26/98 07:04 86 -0- (PRN) Jun/26/ 98 7:19