SSL Certificates Associated with Malware Exposed with SSL Blacklist

Swiss security website Abuse.ch announced the creation of a blacklist containing SSL certificates that are known to be associated with malware and botnet activities such as command and control (C&C) traffic.

The SSL Blacklist, or SSLBL, relies on IP addresses and SHA1 fingerprints associated with certain cyber threats. Users can access various pieces of information on each certificate, including its common name, the name of the issuer, the SSL version, associated malware binaries, and the reason for which it has been blacklisted.

At the time of writing, the SSL Blacklist contains 127 certificates, but a lot more will probably be added in the upcoming period considering that cybercriminals are increasingly relying on SSL certificates to bypass intrusion detection and intrusion prevention systems (IDS/IPS). The certificates that are currently blacklisted are associated with Zeus, Shylock, KINS and CryptoWall C&C traffic.

According to Abuse.ch, the SHA1 fingerprint and IP address blacklists are updated every 15 minutes and they can be downloaded separately in either plain-text (CVS) or a format designed for use with Suricata, a high performance network IDS/IPS and security monitoring engine developed by the Open Information Security Foundation (OISF). “Aggressive” versions of the lists, which contain all the IPs that at one point had been associated with a malicious SSL certificate, are also available. However, Abuse.ch recommends the use of the standard version because the aggressive blacklists could cause false positives due to IP reuse.

The SSL Blacklist is free for both commercial and non-commercial usage without any limitation. However, commercial security solutions providers that want to integrate data from the SSL Blacklist into their products or services must request permission from Abuse.ch.