Wednesday, October 15, 2014

How to check for SSL POODLE / SSLv3 bug? How to fix Nginx?

Google has just disclosed SSL POODLE vulnerability which is a design flaw in SSLv3. Since it is a design flaw in the protocol itself and not an implementation bug, there will be no patches. Only way to mitigate this is to disable SSLv3 in your web server or application using SSL.

How to test for SSL POODLE vulnerability?
$ openssl s_client -connect google.com:443 -ssl3
If there is a handshake failure then the server is not supporting SSLv3 and it is secure from this vulnerability. Otherwise it is required to disable SSLv3 support.

How to disable the SSLv3 support on Nginx?
In nginx configuration, just after the "ssl on;" line, add the following to allow only TLS protocols:
ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.1 TLSv1;

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