SSLv3 Poodle Vulnerability

Yesterday, Google security researchers disclosed a new vulnerability in SSL protocol.
Fortunately, this vulnerability is only on an old version of the SSL protocol: SSLv3 (15 years old protocol).
An attacker can force a browser to downgrade the protocol version used to cipher traffic to SSLv3 in order to exploit the POODLE vulnerability and access data in clear.

Some reading about SSLv3 Poodle vulnerability:

Today’s article is going to explain how to use HAProxy to simply prevent using SSLv3 or to prevent those users to reach your applications and print them a message.

Disable SSLv3 in HAProxy

In SSL offloading mode

In this mode, HAProxy is the SSL endpoint of the connection.
It’s a simple keyword on the frontend bind directive:

 bind 10.0.0.1:443 ssl crt /pat/to/cert.pem no-sslv3

In SSL forward mode

In this mode, HAProxy forwards the SSL traffic to the server without deciphering it.
We must setup an ACL to match the SSL protocol version, then we can refuse the connection. This must be added in a frontend section:

  bind 10.0.0.1:443
  tcp-request inspect-delay 2s
  acl sslv3 req.ssl_ver 3
  tcp-request content reject if sslv3

Communicate a Message to Users

Denying sslv3 is a good way, but a better one would be to educate as well users who are using this protocol.
The configuration below shows how to redirect a user to a specific page when they want to use your application over an SSLv3 connection. Of course, HAProxy must allow itself SSLv3:

frontend ft_www
  bind 10.0.0.1:443 ssl crt /pat/to/cert.pem
  acl sslv3 ssl_fc_protocol SSLv3
# first rule after all your 'http-request deny' and
# before all the redirect, rewrite, etc....
  http-request allow if sslv3
[...]
# first content switching rule
  use_backend bk_sslv3 if sslv3
backend bk_sslv3
  mode http
  errorfile 503 /etc/haproxy/pages/sslv3.http

And the content of the file /etc/haproxy/pages/sslv3.h

HTTP/1.0 200 OK
Cache-Control: no-cache
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/html

<head>
<title>SSLv3 spotted</title>
</head>
<body><h1>SSLv3 spotted</h1></body>
SSLv3 forbidden for your safety:<BR>
http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.fr/2014/10/this-poodle-bites-exploiting-ssl-30.html<BR>
<BR>
If you want to browse this website, you should upgrade your browser.
</html>
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