Tobias Specht

Tobias Specht

  • Joined: 22. August 2023
  • Articles: 4

Parsing X.509 Certificates: How Secure Are TLS Libraries?

Digital certificates like X.509 are essential for secure internet communication by enabling authentication and data integrity. However, differences in how they are parsed by various TLS libraries can introduce security risks. A recent study by Fraunhofer AISEC analyzed six widely used X.509 parsers with real-world certificates. The findings reveal inconsistencies that could impact security-critical applications. In this article, we summarize the key results and explain why companies need to scrutinize their cryptographic libraries.

gallia – An Extendable Pentesting Framework

gallia is an extendable pentesting framework with the focus on the automotive domain, developed by Fraunhofer AISEC under the Apache 2.0 license. The scope of the toolchain is conducting penetration tests from a single ECU up to whole cars. Currently, the main focus lies on the UDS interface but is not limited to it. Acting as a generic interface, the logging functionality implements reproducible tests and enables post-processing tasks.
The following blog post introduces gallia's architecture, its plugin interface, and its intended use case. The post covers the interaction between its components and shows how gallia can be extended for other use cases.