Knowledgebase:
MarkLogic Application Servers and the FREAK SSL Attack
16 February 2021 03:04 PM

Summary

The default configuration of MarkLogic Application Servers are not vulnerable to the FREAK SSL attack. 

What is the FREAK SSL attack?

Tuesday 2015/03/03 - Researchers of miTLS team (joint project between Inria and Microsoft Research) disclosed a new SSL/TLS vulnerability — the FREAK SSL attack (CVE-2015-0204). The vulnerability allows attackers to intercept HTTPS connections between vulnerable clients and servers and force them to use ‘export-grade’ cryptography, which can then be decrypted or altered.

Read more about the FREAK SSL attack.

Testing a webserver

You can verify whether a webserver is attackable by the FREAK attack with this free SSL vulnerability checker.

FIPS

MarkLogic Server uses FIPS-capable OpenSSL to implement the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL v3) and Transport Layer Security (TLS v1) protocols. When you install MarkLogic Server, FIPS mode is enabled by default and SSL RSA keys are generated using secure FIPS 140-2 cryptography. This implementation disallows weak ciphers and uses only FIPS 140-2 approved cryptographic functions. Read more about OpenSSL FIPS mode in MarkLogic Server, and how to configure it.

As long as FIPS mode was not explicitly disabled, MarkLogic Application Servers are not vulnerable to the FREAK SSL attack. 

OpenSSL

Eliminating the vulerability for all configurations requires an update to the OpenSSL library. MarkLogic Server continually updates the implementation version of the OpenSSL library so every MarkLogic Server maintenance release published after the discovery of this vulnerability will include the OpenSSL version that is not vulnerable to the FREAK attack.

Conclusion

As long as FIPS mode is enabled, which is the default configuration, MarkLogic Application Servers are not vulnerable to the FREAK SSL attack

 

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