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Re: [LUG] Security - HTTPS

 

On 08/04/14 19:39, Simon Waters wrote:
> On 08/04/14 15:47, bad apple wrote:
>>
>> To obtain your SSL cert, ignore anyone who might suggest using a
>> freebie, but recognised by most default browser CA stores, cert from
>> people such as startssl.com. These are all guaranteed to be escrowed to
>> agencies for your protection (google away if you like, startssl are an
>> Israeli outfit long suspected of Mossad/NSA collusion).
> 
> In defence of StartSSL there is surprisingly little up-sell.
> 
> Whilst if anyone is going to manipulate a certificate authority in
> Israel Mossad is going to be a prime contender, if you suggest
> alternative provider covered by so the Patriot Act I'm going to pull
> your leg ruthlessly.

Fair enough :]

Funnily enough, I wasn't going to recommend any of them either. In fact,
I don't have any solid recommendations for a CA, I don't trust any of
them implicitly and the general track record for them recently hasn't
been exactly stellar. SSL/TLS and certificate authorities are just
broken at this point, I've stopped trying to keep count of the
new/revoked CAs every update there are just too many of them. I don't
have any alternatives to offer either, except self signing and that's
not much use for non-personal stuff.

> Besides unless you do some sort of pinning or stapling will folk even
> notice who sold you out, or will it matter if it is the same provider
> issuing a different certificate, or a different CA issuing a bogus
> certificate (they don't have your private key). So you might as well go
> with the cheapest competent provider.

Yep, agreed. http://convergence.io/index.html might provide some
succour, if we can get enough other sane people to use it.

All this crap + XP EOL + Patch Tuesday all at once. What a day at the
office.

Regards

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