Full Disclosure mailing list archives

Re: HTTP AUTH BASIC monowall


From: Tim <tim-security () sentinelchicken org>
Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2006 10:04:33 -0500

How trustworthy are the CA certificates included in the average browser?

Ah, well, that's another good topic of discussion, though I'm sure it
will just start a new thread of flames.

There are a couple of dozen CA certificates shipped with my browser.
Some of the vendors associated with these CA certificates offer to
give me a certificate for my web site in 10 minutes or less for a
couple of hundred dollars.

This sounds like a really ripe opportunity for social engineering to me.


Yes, I really don't trust the all-or-nothing SSL PKI myself.  If any
*one* CA certificate in your list is compromised, all SSL connections
you make from your browser could be compromised.  There's no way to say
"I trust this CA more than others", or to say you trust a given CA only
for certain domains (afaik).  It is also very centralized, which makes
it convenient for abuse by monopolies.

I haven't looked into it a whole lot, but does anyone know of
alternatives or ways of establishing webs of trust with SSL/TLS?

tim

_______________________________________________
Full-Disclosure - We believe in it.
Charter: http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html
Hosted and sponsored by Secunia - http://secunia.com/


Current thread: