Dozens of U.S .gov Websites Vulnerable to MITM Attack – TLS certificates Not Renewed due to Federal Shutdown

U.S. federal shutdown affected many of the U.S government websites vulnerable to MITM attack by intercept the traffic because .gov websites haven’t renewed their TLS certificates.

In this case, dozens of U.S. government websites have been rendered either insecure or inaccessible and the sites include government payment portals and remote access services.

Due to the strict security measures Some of the .gov websites are no longer accessible and more then 80 TLS certificates are expired so far without being renewed.

Currently there are 400,000 federal employees are not furloughed for last
21st day since the shutdown enters.

List of site includes NASA, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Court of Appeal, payment portal.

For an Example, U.S. Department of Justice website https://ows2.usdoj.gov, certificate expired on 17 December 2018 since then the site left with expired certificate which is signed by Godaddy.

Modern browsers Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox hide an advance options to restrict user to bypass the warning as an unsecure and continue to browse the site safe.

Since the usdoj.gov and subdomains in Chromium’s HSTS preload list, users never allow to access the unencrypted sites during the U.S. DoJ websites.

When users avoid the warning then they will be victims to man-in-the-middle attacks.

Unfortunately, Most of the affected website are able to bypass the security warning and proceed to access the website therefore the site is vulnerable to MITM attacks.

for an example, https://rockettest.nasa.gov/ certificate expired on Jan 5 2018, but is not included in the HSTS preload list, so user still can bypass the security warning by clicking proceed to the concern website withoutsafe.

According to netcraft , With Donald Trump seemingly unwilling to compromise on his demands for a wall along the border with Mexico, and Democrats refusing to approve a budget containing $5.7bn for the wall, the hundreds of thousands of unpaid federal employees might not be the only ones hurting.

Also still it continues then there are most list of Gov websites in queue which is very nearly to expired within days, weeks — or maybe even months.

You can follow us on LinkedinTwitterFacebook for daily Cybersecurity updates also you can take the Best Cybersecurity courses online to keep your self-updated.

Balaji

BALAJI is an Ex-Security Researcher (Threat Research Labs) at Comodo Cybersecurity. Editor-in-Chief & Co-Founder - Cyber Security News & GBHackers On Security.

Recent Posts

LightSpy iOS Malware Enhanced with 28 New Destructive Plugins

The LightSpy threat actor exploited publicly available vulnerabilities and jailbreak kits to compromise iOS devices.…

1 day ago

ATPC Cyber Forum to Focus on Next Generation Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence Issues

White House National Cyber Director, CEOs, Key Financial Services Companies, Congressional and Executive Branch Experts…

3 days ago

New PySilon RAT Abusing Discord Platform to Maintain Persistence

Cybersecurity experts have identified a new Remote Access Trojan (RAT) named PySilon. This Trojan exploits…

3 days ago

Konni APT Hackers Attacking Organizations with New Spear-Phishing Tactics

The notorious Konni Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) group has intensified its cyber assault on organizations…

3 days ago

Google Chrome Security, Critical Vulnerabilities Patched

Google has updated its Chrome browser, addressing critical vulnerabilities that posed potential risks to millions…

4 days ago

Notorious WrnRAT Delivered Mimic As Gambling Games

WrnRAT is a new malware attack that cybercriminals have deployed by using popular gambling games…

4 days ago