TLS certificates contain private keys that both digitally sign domains and decrypt traffic between users and sites. Possession of Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 certificates would allow attackers, combined with a BGP hijack, to impersonate the Cloudflare DNS endpoint and perform active man-in-the-middle attacks. Attackers could decrypt, view, and tamper with DNS lookups and Cloudflare WARP VPN traffic. The incident reveals failures in certificate validation and public key infrastructure: required CA-provided IP verification was missing from the misissued certificates, and Microsoft's trust validation failed to detect the misissuance. Because certificates authenticate sites like gmail.com and banking portals, such misissuance undermines trust across sensitive internet services and underscores the need for rigorous CA validation processes.
"Doing so would require a BGP hijack to trick your host to think your [rogue] 1.1.1.1 was the one I should connect to," he explained. BGP is short for Border Gateway Protocol, a specification used to link regional networks scattered around the world, known as Autonomous Systems, to each other. By manipulating the system through false notices, attackers regularly take control of legitimate IP addresses, including those belonging to telecoms, banks, and Internet services.
From there, attackers with possession of the 1.1.1.1 certificates could decrypt, view, and tamper with traffic from the Cloudflare DNS service, Hurst said. He added that Cloudflare's WARP VPN service may also be similarly affected. Wednesday's discovery exposes key failures of the public key infrastructure that's responsible for ensuring trust of the entire Internet. They are the only thing ensuring that gmail.com, bankofamerica.com, irs.gov, and any other sensitive website is controlled by the entity claiming ownership.
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