Close
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Applications
    • Applications
    • Cybersecurity
    • IT Management

    The Untrustworthiness of Self-Signed Certificates

    By
    Larry Seltzer
    -
    August 20, 2008
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      User interface changes in some newer browsers have gotten some in the security community riled up. The issue is self-signed certificates. Some folks don’t like users being told that their roll-your-own certificates aren’t as good as the non-free ones. But the fact is that they aren’t as good, especially when the overall population of users of web browsers is considered.

      The https:// in a web address means that the web server has an SSL digital certificate, and this does 2 things for you. First, communications between you and the web server are encrypted (the certificate is used to construct the private key for the encryption). Second, the certificate contains an identity which is presented to the browser user; the user can look at this identity and decide if it is the right one for the web site and if it is trustworthy.

      Browsers And Unsigned Certificates. Click here read more.

      The tools to make these certificates are free and anyone can make a certificate that says they are “Citicorp, Inc. New York, NY”, so how are you supposed to know the difference? The answer is in trusted certificate authorities. Web browsers (and other software, such as Windows itself) come with embedded lists of these trusted CAs and their public keys. The idea is that these CAs, before they issue a certificate to an entity, check to see if that entity is in fact the company or individual it purports to be. Thus the CA is vouching for the identity of the holder of the certificate

      When a certificate comes along the browser sees if it was signed by, and therefore issued by, one of the trusted CAs. If it is, then things are cool. If not, then nobody is vouching for the identity. Because the Internet is full of lying, thieving no-goodniks browser authors have decided that such certificates deserve a special level of scrutiny.

      Internet Explorer 7 and Opera 9.51 both react to such a page with a warning that the page’s certificate is not quite right and that such a certificate is sometimes used by malicious pages in order to trick the user. They ask if you want to continue and, if you do, you are allowed to go to the page. Internet Explorer makes the address bar red for the page and puts “Certificate Error” in the right-hand part of it.

      Firefox, on the other hand, shows a much more urgent warning with much more technical stuff thrown at the user. If the user wishes to go on to the web page they can’t just go there, they first have to create an exception rule, a multi-step process which includes many more warnings.

      For a demonstration of how this works in the 3 web browsers see our Slide Show: Browsers And Unsigned Certificates.

      Is Mozillas Policy Bad for the Web?

      Nat Tuck doesn’t like this and thinks it’s actually bad for the web. He makes allusions to net neutrality arguments and says that Mozilla’s policy is not open. Tuck figures that he knows what he’s getting with such a site and, while it may be worth putting up an informational message showing that the sites “could not be authenticated” there should be nothing to impede the user’s progress toward that page. Tuck doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who would ever have tried Internet Explorer, but in principle he seems to object even to its less intrusive warning.

      Tuck has gotten some support in the blogosphere; A Slashdot thread on it got 800-something comments, with much agreement to varying degrees. I think most of the reaction has focused on the fact that the overwhelming majority of users, unlike Tuck, don’t know what they are getting and need to have their hands held. Even if it is more “open” to let self-signed certs through, it’s better that users have phishing protection, and that protection is harder if you don’t trust certificate authorities.

      CAs are not 100% trustworthy of course. They make mistakes now and then, such as giving certificates to malware authors. In many cases merely confirming that the owner of the cert is who they claim to be doesn’t do anything. Sure, if the owner is “PayPal Inc. (US)” then most of us know who and what they are. If the owner is “HyperGlobalMegaNet Inc.” then is it? Who are they? Are they trustworthy? The real value though, comes when the self-signed certificate says that the owner is “PayPal Inc. (US)”. In that case, anti-phishing protection clearly can call shenanigans on it and tell the user there’s a problem.

      But more generally about self-signed certificates, the issue is that nobody is vouching for the identity. Browser authors have made the policy decision that identity is a big issue and it really can’t be checked with self-signed certs. As Michael Barrett of PayPal says, “…in the case of self-signed certificates it’s almost impossible to see how any technology can disambiguate between legitimate uses and criminal ones.”

      I totally agree with Barrett, but I’m going to agree a little with Tuck as well: Firefox goes completely overboard here. They don’t just warn you about the dangers of self-signed certs, they nag you about them. Over and over again. Internet Explorer 7’s approach seems much more reasonable, especially since they keep a warning up there while you’re using the site.

      We’ve already seen that Firefox 3.1, in the works for a while now, will make some important changes, and I think toning down the self-signed certificate process would be a fair one.

      Security Center Editor Larry Seltzer has worked in and written about the computer industry since 1983.

      For insights on security coverage around the Web, take a look at eWEEK.com Security Center Editor Larry Seltzer’s blog Cheap Hack.

      Larry Seltzer
      Larry Seltzer has been writing software for and English about computers ever since—,much to his own amazement—,he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1983.He was one of the authors of NPL and NPL-R, fourth-generation languages for microcomputers by the now-defunct DeskTop Software Corporation. (Larry is sad to find absolutely no hits on any of these +products on Google.) His work at Desktop Software included programming the UCSD p-System, a virtual machine-based operating system with portable binaries that pre-dated Java by more than 10 years.For several years, he wrote corporate software for Mathematica Policy Research (they're still in business!) and Chase Econometrics (not so lucky) before being forcibly thrown into the consulting market. He bummed around the Philadelphia consulting and contract-programming scenes for a year or two before taking a job at NSTL (National Software Testing Labs) developing product tests and managing contract testing for the computer industry, governments and publication.In 1991 Larry moved to Massachusetts to become Technical Director of PC Week Labs (now eWeek Labs). He moved within Ziff Davis to New York in 1994 to run testing at Windows Sources. In 1995, he became Technical Director for Internet product testing at PC Magazine and stayed there till 1998.Since then, he has been writing for numerous other publications, including Fortune Small Business, Windows 2000 Magazine (now Windows and .NET Magazine), ZDNet and Sam Whitmore's Media Survey.
      Get the Free Newsletter!
      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis
      This email address is invalid.
      Get the Free Newsletter!
      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis
      This email address is invalid.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Latest News

      Zeus Kerravala on Networking: Multicloud, 5G, and...

      James Maguire - December 16, 2022 0
      I spoke with Zeus Kerravala, industry analyst at ZK Research, about the rapid changes in enterprise networking, as tech advances and digital transformation prompt...
      Read more
      Applications

      Datadog President Amit Agarwal on Trends in...

      James Maguire - November 11, 2022 0
      I spoke with Amit Agarwal, President of Datadog, about infrastructure observability, from current trends to key challenges to the future of this rapidly growing...
      Read more
      Cloud

      IGEL CEO Jed Ayres on Edge and...

      James Maguire - June 14, 2022 0
      I spoke with Jed Ayres, CEO of IGEL, about the endpoint sector, and an open source OS for the cloud; we also spoke about...
      Read more
      IT Management

      Intuit’s Nhung Ho on AI for the...

      James Maguire - May 13, 2022 0
      I spoke with Nhung Ho, Vice President of AI at Intuit, about adoption of AI in the small and medium-sized business market, and how...
      Read more
      Applications

      Kyndryl’s Nicolas Sekkaki on Handling AI and...

      James Maguire - November 9, 2022 0
      I spoke with Nicolas Sekkaki, Group Practice Leader for Applications, Data and AI at Kyndryl, about how companies can boost both their AI and...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2022 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×