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Digital Certificates.

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spud17
spud17 Posts: 4,433 Forumite
Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
in Techie Stuff
I may have missed it, but I've not seen any threads about the current (potential) problems with digital certificates.

Couple of articles from WindowsSecrets newsletter.

http://windowssecrets.com/top-story/certificate-cleanup-for-most-personal-computers/#story1

http://windowssecrets.com/top-story/the-sorry-tale-of-the-unsecure-sockets-layer/#story1
Move along, nothing to see.

Comments

  • Richie-from-the-Boro
    Richie-from-the-Boro Posts: 6,945 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    spud17 wrote: »
    I may have missed it, but I've not seen any threads about the current (potential) problems with digital certificates.

    Couple of articles from WindowsSecrets newsletter.

    http://windowssecrets.com/top-story/certificate-cleanup-for-most-personal-computers/#story1

    http://windowssecrets.com/top-story/the-sorry-tale-of-the-unsecure-sockets-layer/#story1

    HiYa spud, been around a few weeks mate, the biggies put blockers in their browsers .. .. this will do a proper clean out if your using a WinBlows machine. :beer:
    Disclaimer : Everything I write on this forum is my opinion. I try to be an even-handed poster and accept that you at times may not agree with these opinions or how I choose to express them, this is not my problem. The Disabled : If years cannot be added to their lives, at least life can be added to their years - Alf Morris - ℜ
  • Hammyman
    Hammyman Posts: 9,913 Forumite
    Richie-from-the-Boro wrote: »
    us;2607712"]this will do a proper clean out[/URL] if your using a WinBlows machine. :beer:

    Oh my ribs are aching. If you actually had a clue you would know that all major OSes have had those certificates revoked through updates so as long as you regularly update the OS you will not have a problem. Mac OS X, embarrassingly for Apple, being the last to release the updates.
  • Richie-from-the-Boro
    Richie-from-the-Boro Posts: 6,945 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 17 September 2011 at 11:25PM
    Hammyman wrote: »
    Oh my ribs are aching. If you actually had a clue you would know that all major OSes have had those certificates revoked through updates so as long as you regularly update the OS you will not have a problem. Mac OS X, embarrassingly for Apple, being the last to release the updates.

    Now then you great big clunking fist .. you do .. I do .. spud prolly does .. not all people do do regular updates , and 99% of the world use Winblows - oh my ribs are aching :D

    Now to the serious point .. .. yer big bullying posing style pratt ! I gave a clue when I said ' proper clean out ', you of course being a really clued up Scottish person with a proper CLUE about this intervention would know that the KB I recommended moves even the trusted DigiNotar certificates to an untrusted-certificate store in WinBlows. Oh ! my ribs are aching :D
    Disclaimer : Everything I write on this forum is my opinion. I try to be an even-handed poster and accept that you at times may not agree with these opinions or how I choose to express them, this is not my problem. The Disabled : If years cannot be added to their lives, at least life can be added to their years - Alf Morris - ℜ
  • Akenaton
    Akenaton Posts: 19 Forumite
    If you use FireFox or Opera then OS updates won't help you, of course.
    They need browser updates and they both issued them shortly after this DigiNotar story broke.
    Richie, rightly, refers to both.

    Also some OS and browser updates 'may' still trust other DigiNotar certs, something you might want to think about, although unlikely to affect you much unless you live in the Netherlands.


    It isn't so much that the company was hacked. Sure that can happen to anyone some of you will say, but the fact that that people outside the company discovered this, not DigiNotar, then they sat on it for a couple of weeks allowing those certs to be used. Possibly putting some lives at risk!

    The list of fraudulent certs is now thought to be over 500, all disclosed by others, not DigiNotar.

  • spud17
    spud17 Posts: 4,433 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Yeah, I realise it's been around for a while, but I (not being a proper certified techie) found the 2 articles explained it quite well.
    It isn't so much that the company was hacked.

    As I read it, it was actually the certificate reseller (RA) who was hacked, this gave an entry to the CA.
    Move along, nothing to see.
  • Akenaton
    Akenaton Posts: 19 Forumite
    Remember, any system is only as good as the weakest link in the chain.
    Just like third party software plugins are used to hack an OS


    It's the end result that is important ..
  • Richie-from-the-Boro
    Richie-from-the-Boro Posts: 6,945 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Microsoft Untrusted Certificate Store - updates & supersedes
    Disclaimer : Everything I write on this forum is my opinion. I try to be an even-handed poster and accept that you at times may not agree with these opinions or how I choose to express them, this is not my problem. The Disabled : If years cannot be added to their lives, at least life can be added to their years - Alf Morris - ℜ
  • S0litaire
    S0litaire Posts: 3,535 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Unfortunately ALL smart phones still have the compromised certificates.

    Unless you can get access to the Certificate list and manually remove the effected certs...

    Which i'm currently doing on my Android... ^__^
    Laters

    Sol

    "Have you found the secrets of the universe? Asked Zebade "I'm sure I left them here somewhere"
  • Yolina
    Yolina Posts: 2,262 Forumite
    edited 18 September 2011 at 3:04PM
    I manually did my phone a while back too :p

    For people with a HP Touchpad, there's a patch to remove the relevant certificates available through Preware conveniently called " Remove Untrusted SSL Certs"

    Edit: there is now an app for rooted Android users https://market.android.com/details?id=info.guardianproject.cacert
    Now free from the incompetence of vodafail
  • S0litaire
    S0litaire Posts: 3,535 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Yolina wrote: »
    I manually did my phone a while back too :p

    For people with a HP Touchpad, there's a patch to remove the relevant certificates available through Preware

    Did you also remove the Chineese state's root certificate (CNNIC) , I did... you never know! ^_~ lol
    Laters

    Sol

    "Have you found the secrets of the universe? Asked Zebade "I'm sure I left them here somewhere"
This discussion has been closed.
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