xboxlive digital certificate exposed opens users to MITM attacks

Microsoft has issued an advisory to notify customers that the private keys for an SSL/TLS digital certificate for *xboxlive.com have been disclosed.

According to a security advisory published by Microsoft, the company is propagating a new certificate for the *.xboxlive.com domain because it has “inadvertently disclosed” the certificate’s contents.

Microsoft confirmed the accidental disclosure of the digital certificate private keys for the above domain, a circumstance that opens customers to man-in-the-middle attacks, although the certificate “cannot be used to issue other certificates, impersonate other domains, or sign code”.

The Xboxlive certificate is included in all supported releases of Microsoft Windows.

“Microsoft is aware of an SSL/TLS digital certificate for *.xboxlive.com for which the private keys were inadvertently disclosed. The certificate could be used in attempts to perform man-in-the-middle attacks. It cannot be used to issue other certificates, impersonate other domains, or sign code. This issue affects all supported releases of Microsoft Windows. Microsoft is not currently aware of attacks related to this issue. ” reads the Microsoft advisory.

Microsoft confirmed that revocation of the Xboxlive SSL server certificates should propagate to everybody automatically, however. The company hasn’t provided additional information on how many people may have seen the certificate, but it is unlike that the accidental disclosure has been exploited in attacks in the wild.

Users of Windows have nothing to do, meanwhile users of Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2 will need to enable the automatic certificate updater.

Users not covered by the automatic update should add the compromised certificate to the list of untrusted certificates by using the Certificates MMC snap-in.

After applying the update, how can users verify the certificates in the Microsoft Untrusted Certificates Store? 

For Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2008 R2 systems that are using the automatic updater of certificate trust lists (see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 2677070 for details), and for Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows RT, Windows RT 8.1, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows 10, and Windows 10 Version 1511 systems, users can check the Application log in the Event Viewer for an entry with the following values:

  • Source: CAPI2
  • Level: Information
  • Event ID: 4112
  • Description: Successful auto update of disallowed certificate list with effective date: Tuesday, December 1, 2015 (or later).

For systems not using the automatic updater of certificate trust lists, in the Certificates MMC snap-in, verify that the following certificate has been added to the Untrusted Certificates folder:

Certificate Issued by Thumbprint
xboxlive.com Microsoft IT SSL SHA2 ‎8b 2e 65 a5 da 17 fc cc bc de 7e f8 7b 0c 0e d5 d0 70 1f 9f
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Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – Xboxlive certificate, PKI)

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Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.

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