CVE-2023-37920: Certifi Root Certificate Trust Vulnerability

CVE-2023-37920 Overview

Certifi is a curated collection of Root Certificates for validating the trustworthiness of SSL certificates while verifying the identity of TLS hosts. Certifi prior to version 2023.07.22 recognized "e-Tugra" root certificates. These certificates were subject to an investigation prompted by security issues in their systems. Certifi 2023.07.22 removes these "e-Tugra" root certificates from the root store.

Critical Impact
This vulnerability impacts the integrity of SSL validations by trusting certificates that might be compromised.

Affected Products

Certifi Certifi
Fedoraproject Fedora
Netapp Active IQ Unified Manager

Discovery Timeline

Not Available - Vulnerability discovered by Not Available
Not Available - Responsible disclosure to Certifi
Not Available - CVE CVE-2023-37920 assigned
Not Available - Certifi releases security patch
2023-07-25T21:15:10.827 - CVE CVE-2023-37920 published to NVD
2025-02-13T13:50:15.813 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2023-37920

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability stems from the inclusion of "e-Tugra" root certificates in the Certifi root store, which were found to be untrustworthy due to security lapses.

Root Cause

The untrustworthy "e-Tugra" root certificates compromised the security of SSL validations.

Attack Vector

Network

python

# Example exploitation code (sanitized)
def check_certificate_validity(certificate):
    validated = trust_store.validate(certificate)
    if not validated:
        raise ValueError("Certificate validation failed")
# After the patch: ensure 'e-Tugra' certificates are not trusted
trust_store.remove_root("e-Tugra")

Detection Methods for CVE-2023-37920

Indicators of Compromise

Trust failures for SSL connections
Logs showing untrusted "e-Tugra" certificate usage
Alerts from security monitoring systems

Detection Strategies

Implement monitoring scripts to alert on SSL trust failures related to "e-Tugra" certificates.

Monitoring Recommendations

Utilize SentinelOne’s advanced threat detection capabilities which will help identify and alert any anomalies involving untrusted certificates in the network traffic.

How to Mitigate CVE-2023-37920

Immediate Actions Required

Remove "e-Tugra" root certificates manually if not using the latest Certifi update.
Update Certifi to version 2023.07.22 or later.
Perform a full audit of trusted root certificates in your environment.

Patch Information

Apply the update available at: Certifi Patch

Workarounds

Manually edit the list of root certificates in your environment and remove any "e-Tugra" certificates.

bash

# Configuration example
grep -v "e-Tugra" /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt > /etc/ssl/certs/new-ca-certificates.crt
mv /etc/ssl/certs/new-ca-certificates.crt /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt