Security Unlucky for you: UK crypto-duo 'crack' HTTPS in Lucky 13 attack

[J65nko]

From http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/02...crypto_attack/

Two scientists say they have identified a new weakness in TLS, the encryption system used to safeguard online shopping, banking and privacy. The design flaw, revealed today, could be exploited to snoop on passwords and other sensitive information sent by users to HTTPS websites.

Professor Kenny Paterson from the Information Security Group at Royal Holloway, University of London and PhD student Nadhem Alfardan claim they can crack TLS-encrypted traffic in a man-in-the-middle attack.

According to their study, the weakness revolves around altering messages exchanged between the web server and browser, and noting microsecond differences in the time taken to process them.