# PKI - Common Pitfalls
# PKI Stuff Lately
- Golden cert attacks
- A lot of press this year
- Pkint issues
- Certified pre owned by Schroeder and Christensen
- Certifried and other tools
# Overview
- Common operational and security issues
# Terminology
- Issued to
- Person, email, or something
- Issued by
- ca
- Time Values
- Valid from to dates
- Certificate extensions
- CRL
- Cert revocation list
# How certs are validated
- Standards from RFC.
1. Subject verification
2. Time validity
3. Revocation check
1. Marking as not to be trusted
2. CRL- list of untrustworthy certs
1. Small serial numbers in txt files.
- Most of these values are cached or else PKI would be inconvenient
# PKI and CRLs
- Hard to build
- CRLs are arguably most important part of a PKI
- CRL are integral to trust. People need to understand that and obey rules
- CRLs are written by CAs
- If CRLs are not found then the search will automatically fail
- CRLs becoming unavailable cause huge losses
# Operational Issues
## CDP - CRL Distribution Points
- Where to find crls
- You want availability and redundancy
- Maybe stored in ad but even then some clients won't find it
- Location is important
- There is no easy approach
- Most configuration is done at CA level
- OS specific rules for location and caching
### Issues in orgs
- Out of band movements of crls
- CDP role on CA or other systems
- Poor location design
- Active directory can be bad for things that aren’t connected to domain like phones
- At the CA level
- Order matters
- Usually out 3 locations
- To LDAP or not LDAP
- Lack of redundancy
- Points of failure exists within or between locations
# Security Issues
DCs are important. Someone becoming a CA is bad.
## Templates
- Part of windows domain joined pki
- Configuration at template level
- Templates have permissions
- Read- download the templates
- Enroll - manual enroll
- Auto enroll
- Write/FC - Shouldn't ever be checked
## Problems
- Overly broad rights
- Any write/fc
- PKI administration sometimes has this
- Bloat / Defaults
## CA permissions
- Managed CA is basically god…be careful
- Bloat / defaults
- Service Accounts
- Be careful with apps that have these
- Enrollment agents (MDM)
- Most of these need service accounts
- Threat model these situations
- Local groups / admin?
## Powerful certs
- Templates that allow enrolle supplied info like the cert subject
- Can allow spoofing or impersonating
- Templates for DC and other critical systems
- Templates with SAN (subject alternative) names
- Dangerous but hs legitimate usage
- Some things require built in SAN names
# Closing thoughts
- Formal assessment of your PKI
- Training for people who do PKI ops