Difference between revisions of "Certificate Authority"

Revision as of 19:07, 19 February 2024

Full Title or Meme

Any computer service that can evaluate and issue certificates to any Entity, either natural or otherwise, with some sort of digital Identifier.

Context

• Typically, certificates are issued in compliance with CCITT X509 standards in support of a Public Key Infrastructure.
• Efforts started in 2024 are focused on finding other solutions which might mean CCITT X.509 type certification in JSON structure.
• Other effort to create various types of Trust Registry are starting to look a lot like a Certificate Authority.

Problems

1. Enhanced Security Verification - When you connect to a website, browsers like **Chrome** not only verify that a recognized Certificate Authority (CA) issued the certificate but also perform additional checks on the connection's security properties. - One such check involves validating data from Certificate Transparency logs. These logs help detect any mis-issuance of certificates after they have been issued.^[1]
2. Post-Issuance Validation - CT works within the existing CA infrastructure to provide **post-issuance validation** of an entity's authorization for SSL certificate issuance.^[2] - By monitoring these logs, domain owners can identify any unauthorized or suspicious certificates associated with their domains.
3. Privacy Concerns - Public CAs maintain **Certificate Transparency logs**, which are publicly accessible and searchable. - Some organizations prefer to use their **internal certificate authorities** to avoid having their internal host-names appear in these public logs.^[3]
4. Future Adoption - While most CAs currently support CT primarily for **Extended Validation (EV) certificates**, there is a possibility of extending it to all SSL certificates in the future.^[4]

In summary, the move toward **Certificate Transparency** aims to bolster security, increase transparency, and ensure the integrity of SSL certificates across the web.

^[5]

References

1. ↑ How the Chrome Root Program Keeps Users Safe - Security Blog. https://security.googleblog.com/2023/05/how-chrome-root-program-keeps-users-safe.html.
2. ↑ Why and How You Should be Using an Internal Certificate Authority. https://isc.sans.edu/diary/Why+and+How+You+Should+be+Using+an+Internal+Certificate+Authority/27314.
3. ↑ Moving Forward with Certificate Transparency - Entrust Blog. https://www.entrust.com/blog/2014/12/moving-forward-with-certificate-transparency/.
4. ↑ The HTTPS-Only Standard - Certificates - CIO.GOV. https://https.cio.gov/certificates/.
5. ↑ Moving Forward with Certificate Transparency - Entrust Blog. https://www.entrust.com/blog/2014/12/moving-forward-with-certificate-transparency/.