Networking Essentials hard
TLS 1.3 introduces '0-RTT' Resumption. What is the security risk?
- A It relies on a specialized, lower-level cryptographic suite that has been mathematically proven to be vulnerable to high-intensity side-channel and timing attacks.
- B It exposes the server's master private key during the initial unencrypted greeting, potentially allowing any passive network-level listener to fully decrypt all subsequent traffic.
- C It fundamentally requires the host to disable all domain name system (DNS) security extensions, which renders the entire connection vulnerable to various 'man-in-the-middle' hijacks.
- D Replay Attacks; because the server accepts application data before a fresh handshake has proven the sender's identity, a hacker could 'replay' a captured packet (e.g., 'Transfer $100').
Answer: D. Replay Attacks; because the server accepts application data before a fresh handshake has proven the sender's identity, a hacker could 'replay' a captured packet (e.g., 'Transfer $100').
Standard TLS 1.3 takes 1 round-trip of chatter before you can send data. '0-RTT Resumption' allows a returning client to send data immediately (Zero Round-Trip). The problem is 'Freshness'. If a hacker captures that first encrypted packet, they can send a copy of it to the server again. The server might see it as a valid 0-RTT request and process it. This is why 0-RTT should only be used for 'Idempotent' requests—things like 'GET /news' where seeing it twice doesn't hurt. For sensitive actions like 'POST /buy', developers must ensure the application has its own protection (like unique nonces) to detect and ignore replayed 0-RTT data.
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