CVE-2011-2874 in Chrome
Summary
by MITRE
Google Chrome before 14.0.835.163 does not perform an expected pin operation for a self-signed certificate during a session, which has unspecified impact and remote attack vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/11/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2011-2874 affects Google Chrome versions prior to 14.0.835.163 and relates to insufficient certificate validation during SSL/TLS session establishment. This weakness specifically involves the browser's failure to properly execute the expected pinning operation for self-signed certificates, which represents a critical gap in the certificate trust verification process. The issue stems from Chrome's certificate validation logic not adequately enforcing certificate pinning mechanisms that should prevent man-in-the-middle attacks by ensuring that only trusted certificates are accepted for specific domains or services.
The technical flaw manifests in Chrome's certificate handling routines where self-signed certificates that should be pinned to specific public keys or fingerprints are not properly validated against the expected pinning constraints. This creates a scenario where an attacker could potentially substitute a malicious certificate for a legitimate one without triggering the browser's security warnings or blocking mechanisms. The vulnerability's impact is particularly concerning because it operates at the core of SSL/TLS security implementation where trust decisions are made, allowing for potential certificate substitution attacks that bypass normal security controls.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability enables remote attackers to conduct man-in-the-middle attacks against users of affected Chrome versions by exploiting the incomplete certificate validation process. The unspecified impact and remote attack vectors suggest that attackers could leverage this weakness to intercept and potentially modify encrypted communications, access sensitive data, or redirect users to malicious sites without the browser's normal security protections being triggered. This represents a significant risk to user privacy and data integrity in web communications.
The vulnerability aligns with CWE-295, which addresses improper certificate validation, and relates to ATT&CK technique T1041 by enabling network protocol manipulation. Organizations should immediately upgrade to Chrome version 14.0.835.163 or later to remediate this issue, as the fix implements proper certificate pinning enforcement for self-signed certificates. Additional mitigations include implementing certificate transparency monitoring, deploying network-based intrusion detection systems, and conducting regular security audits of web applications. System administrators should also consider implementing certificate pinning policies at the network level and ensure that all users maintain current browser versions through automated update mechanisms to prevent exploitation of this and similar vulnerabilities.