What is an SSL Hijacking? How to Prevent SSL Hijacking Attack?

What is SSL Hijacking?

SSL Hijacking is a type of cyber attack that occurs when an attacker reroutes a user’s traffic intended to a secure website and alter it independently.

This type of attack occurs when the attacker finds weaknesses in the SSL protocol then reroutes the targeted user traffic to the attacker’s server.

This allows the attacker to intercept, modify or intercept any information exchanged during the session, for example login credentials, personal data or financial details of the user thereby violating the user’s privacy and security.

How Does SSL Hijacking Work?

An SSL Hijacking process is, therefore, carried out by a hacker who attacks the SSL/TLS protocol or takes advantage of the MitM method.

First, the attacker is placed in between the user and the website, and the communication between the two parties is monitored. This can be done using such techniques as the network spoofing, the DNS spoofing, or the ARP spoofing.

Now that they have established a man in the middle connection, they can compel the user’s connection to use a less secure version of the connection like HTTP instead of HTTPS where the attackers can easily modify the information being sent.

Next, the attacker retrieves the server’s public key and sets up a secure connection with the website and secure connection with the user. The user sends their input to the website unaware that they are in fact sending it to the attacker’s server.

The processed data becomes encrypted as it moves between the user and the website, and the attacker intercepts it, reads or modifies it and encrypts it then passes it to its intended recipient.

This makes it possible for the attacker to obtain information such as password, credit card details, and personal messages without the consent of the user.

To avoid alerting the victim, the attacker guarantees that the user does not know that his information is intercepted, often originating from a secure-looking connection with certificates and URLs.

This makes the detection process to be slightly complex and the attack is able to persist for a long time.

Through such flanks, SSL Hijacking poses a threat to the protection that SSL/TLS was designed to offer by compromising the confidentiality and integrity of transferred data thus resulting in major data leaks and financial ramifications to the users.

Example of an SSL Hijacking Attack

An example of an SSL hijacking attack is where an attacker intercepts the communication between a user and the web site that the user is visiting by using an SSL while the user is connected to the insecure network such as the public network.

The attacker pretends to create a copy of the actual Wi-Fi signal, with the name of the fake hotspot very close to the name of the real one.

Through a man-in-the-middle attack, the attacker compromises the SSL/TLS connection by exploiting its weaknesses or perhaps through phishing, the connection is usually reduced to HTTP or through the use of fake SSL certificates, the attacker pretends to be the genuine website.

This means that they can capture vital information that users input such as log-in details or account numbers and other details, all this undermines the privacy and security of users without their consent.

How to Detect SSL Hijacking?

Identifying SSL hijacking therefore entails capturing and analyzing the SSL/TLS communication to detect features that signify the interception/tampering.

Here are more detailed strategies for detecting SSL hijacking:

SSL Certificate Monitoring

Check the expiration date of the certificates and the SSL certificates linked to your domains periodically. Take into account the certificate was issued by whom, when it will expire, and what other certificates it is connected to.

For instance, modification of the certificate details section to reflect the presence of a different certificate issuer or the validity period being shorter than anticipated, can point to a hijacking effort.

Certificate Transparency Logs

CT logs exist to monitor certificates that were issued for your domain by publicly trusted CA (Certificate Authorities). Also through the monitoring of the CT logs, one is in a position to identify such unauthorized certificates that have been issued on his domain.

Also Read: What is Certificate Transparency?

There are tools and services that mimic its functionality of identifying suspect certificates automatically and subsequently send notifications.

SSL/TLS Inspection Tools

Deploy one or many SSL/TLS inspection facilities or service providers for your network. These tools work as sniffers, sit in between SSL/TLS connections, and then scan for any suspicious traffic.

With this protocol implementation; network/bus layer can identify any deviation in the SSL handshake parameters, changes in CAs or identify SSL stripping attacks where an established HTTPS connection has been manipulated to HTTP.

Traffic Analysis

Regarding traffic analysis, it is necessary to perform detailed network monitoring that will allow tracking the changes in activity that may indicate the SSL hijacking.

The typical approaches include the search for unusual redirection to another domain, accesses to secure SSL/TLS connections without proper authorization or changes in the SSL handshake process.

Any deviations in the flow of data, for instance, in traffic patterns, changes in the volume of data, or new port activities that are associated with interactions within a network may be indicators that a man in the middle attack is being perpetrated.

Behavioral Analytics

Adapt behavioral analytics to track and analyze the patterns of the user and the operational performance of the application.

It is recommended to search for abnormally different activity compared to what is considered typical, including login attempts on accounts with insufficient privileges, sudden spikes in data transfers out of the network, or critical errors during the SSL/TLS sessions.

These anomalies may suggest SSL hijacking or other malicious activities The following figure displays details of SSL procedures that are considered anomalies based on the above conditions.

How to Prevent SSL Hijacking?

Since intercepting SSL streams is difficult to accomplish without compromising the connection, the best way to protect against SSL hijacking is to use proper security measures in your layers of network and applications.

Here are key steps to prevent SSL hijacking:

Use Strong SSL/TLS Encryption

Check that all the ports and communication channels involved, particularly those processing or transferring personal data, are secured via SSL/TLS encryption (preferably, TLS 1. 2 or later). Since the weak protocols and ciphers are at risk of being attacked, disabling them would be a defensive measure to be taken.

Implement HTTPS Everywhere

Monitor the websites, applications, and APIs that contain sensitive data and ensure they are using HTTPS to encrypt their communication. It guarantees that all passing information or traffic between clients and servers is protected from anyone who wants to intercept it.

Secure Certificate Management

Ensure that you have tight control on SSL/TLS certificates. To mitigate this risk, ensure that you trust only reputed CAs for the issuance of certificates and that you periodically scan the certificate transparency logs for certificates impersonating your domains.

Enable Certificate Pinning

Add certificate pinning as it allows clients to only authenticate certificates from the right CAs as well as other certificates relevant to the domains. They do this in order to ensure that nobody can compromise the traffic using fake or unauthorized certificates.

SSL/TLS Inspection

Use SSL/TLS inspection tools or services like Web Security Gateways and Secure Web Gateways inside your network to filter SSL stripping attacks.

These tools analyze SSL/TLS for suspicious behavior and make certain that the connections are still encrypted https rather than being conned into cleartext http.

How does SSL Prevent Session Hijacking?

Encryption of Data in Transit

Https, which employs tls (formerly ssl), employs the encryption of data that is exchanged between a client’s browser and the web server.

This encryption helps prevent anyone from intercepting any data that is passed during a given session and includes such items as cookies and session tokens.

It still becomes very hard if not impossible to decipher the information intercepted by the attacker, this is so because of the used encryption and decryption keys.

This initial layer of protection makes it difficult for the attackers to infiltrate the session and gain access to session data required for session hijacking.

Integrity of Data

TLS guarantees data integrity in that it maintains the fact that any data that has been exchanged between the client and the server is protected from any modifications. It employs a cryptographic hash function that forms a message digest of the data packet.

Built-in are features whereby modification of any part of the data alters the fingerprint that indicates tampering to the recipient.

This integrity check assists in avoiding potential session hijack threats by guaranteeing that any intercepted data can be easily detected if tampered with.

Authentication of Parties

TLS/SSL relies on certificates, purchased and provided by trusted third parties known as Certificate Authorities (CA), for the authentication of the server to the client.

This authentication makes sure that the client at the other end is talking to the real server and not an attacker disguising as a real server.

Some implementations also support authentication mechanisms that are two-way, where the client authenticates the server as well.

Thus, attacks such as the man in the middle, which is a common approach to performing session hijacking, can be effectively prevented with the help of authentication.

How to Mitigate SSL Hijacking?

Use Strong Encryption Protocols

Making sure that your web server supports the best encryption protocols compatible with current protocol standards like TLS 1.3 can greatly minimize the probabilities of SSL hijacking.

SSL/TLS has been shown to have previous versions that have been easy to attack and break.

This blueprint disallows long-developed protocols like SSL 2. 0, SSL 3. 0, let alone TLS 1. 0 and 1. 1, you can guarantee the protection of your data from hacking by availing only the strongest encryption norms.

Implement HTTP Strict Transport Security

HSTS is a mechanism of web application security policy that assists in protection of vulnerable websites against downgrade attacks as well as cookie hijacking.

Also Read: What is the HSTS Preload List for Chrome? How to Add Domain to HSTS Preload List?

When HSTS is deployed, the web applications will only allow access by serving their content only over HTTPS and will not allow any connection over HTTP. This ensures that even if a user types in “http:

This is an extreme version of the attack but shows that if a domain contains a string such as “http://”, the browser automatically redirects the connection to “https://”, thereby preventing SSL hijacking attempts.

Regularly Update Certificates and Key Management

To achieve these, the following are recommended:

The use of valid SSL/TLS certificates obtained from trusted Certificate Authorities (CA). Make it a rule to update and renew your SSL certificate before they are due and also make sure the private keys are safely held.

Automating the issuance and renewal of certificates is vital in keeping track of the validity of these certificates.

Enable Certificate Pinning

Certificate pinning is a preventive mechanism that binds a host with its anticipated X. 509 certificate or public key to counteract man-in-the-middle attacks.

Upon the establishing of the connection, it becomes mandatory for the server to present one of the pinned certificates.

This final check helps to make sure that the client is connecting to the legitimate server and not an impostor that is seeking to engage in SSL hijacking.

Monitor and Log Network Traffic

As for preventive measures, regular use of the network monitoring and logging tools can reveal some activity that would signal an attempt to hijack the SSL connections.

Using traffic analysis, you are able to notice that there are some rather peculiarities that should arouse suspicion, like a sudden change in the certificates or connecting requests.

This timely monitoring helps to identify and respond to threats before they can escalate to become major issues.

Conclusion

Secure yourself with our cyber security prorducts and be safe online. Implement our modern SSL/TLS solutions for your websites and information security now.

Beneath our encryption services, you are safe to browse and have your data transmitted without the worry of hacking.

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