From CASC to the Public Key Infrastructure Consortium July 12, 2021 by
Paul van Brouwershaven
(Digitorus),
Paul van Brouwershaven
(Entrust)
Chris Bailey
(Entrust)
CASCPKIPKIC Over the years, the need for private, industry, or solution-specific PKI has grown significantly, with stricter policies and the revocation of certificates and CAs becoming more common. The impact of changes in centralized PKI have caused delays and disruption of third-party services that may or may not have been considered. Any PKI (public, private, or specific) must operate according to best practices, clear policies and without a single point of failure.
Over the years misconceptions about CAs and the SSL infrastructure have arisen. Below is a list of common myths related to SSL and CAs.
Myth #1: CAs are not regulated
Fact: CAs are subject to various checks and balances, including third-party qualified audits through WebTrust or ETSI and strict criteria set forth by leading browsers, before they are accepted in browser root stores. Similarly, the CA/Browser Forum’s Baseline Requirements and Network Security Guidelines establish global standards for certificate issuance and CA controls that will soon be included in third-party auditing standards. Browsers are free to use these requirements to exclude non-compliant CAs from the root store.
Last month marked the release of Firefox 66, the newest iteration of the ever-popular web browser. The update adds a number of interesting new features, including improvements to content loading and extension storage, auto-play sound blocking, and support for the AV1 codec (on the Windows version at least). The search feature has also been improved, and, as is typical of browser updates, a number of known security vulnerabilities have been patched.
As the legendary coach of the NY Yankees Yogi Berra allegedly said, “It’s difficult to make predictions, especially about the future.” But we’re going to try.
Here are the CA Security Council (CASC) 2019 Predictions: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
The Good
Prediction: By the end of 2019, over 90% of the world’s http traffic will be secured over SSL/TLS
LONDON – (June 27, 2018) – The Certificate Authority Security Council (CASC), an advocacy group committed to the advancement of the security of websites and online transactions, announced at the CA/Browser Forum event in London the launch of the London Protocol – an initiative to improve identity assurance and minimize the possibility of phishing activity on websites encrypted with organization validated (OV) and extended validation (EV) certificates, which contain organization identity information (Identity Certificates).
San Francisco – June 19, 2018 – The Certificate Authority Security Council (CASC), an advocacy group committed to the advancement of web security, today announced that Fortify, an open source application sponsored by the Council, is now available for Windows and Mac. Fortify, a free app, connects a user’s web browsers to smart cards, security tokens, and certificates on a user’s local machine. This allows users to generate X.509 certificates in their browser, replacing the loss of key generation functionality.
This is a good time to offer a reminder that the CASC has a great tool for secure server testing, the SSL Server Test. The tool grades your server installation and reviews the: certificate, protocol support, key exchange and cipher strength for security against standards and known vulnerabilities.
The grading tool also provides feedback on handshake simulations with various versions of browsers and operating systems. This lets the server administrator know which implementations are supported. The test also checks the server mitigation for known vulnerabilities such as: DROWN, BEAST, POODLE and Heartbleed.
San Francisco –December 8, 2016 – the Certificate Authority Security Council (CASC), an advocacy group committed to the advancement web security, today announced the Code Signing Working Group has released new Minimum Requirements for Code Signing for use by all Certificate Authorities (CA). These requirements represent the first-ever standardized code signing guidelines. Code signing is the method of using a certificate-based digital signature to sign executables and scripts in order to verify the author’s identity and ensure that the code has not been changed or corrupted. Helping to verify software authenticity and avoid downloading malware and other malicious software is critical to protecting consumers’ online interactions. Microsoft is the first applications software vendor to adopt these guidelines, with others expected to follow.
It is time for an update on the Baseline Requirements for Code Signing.
First the bad news, the new standard was not approved by the CA/Browser Forum due to philosophical differences among some forum members who felt code signing was not in scope with the Forum’s charter.
The good news is the document was created in a multi-stakeholder environment and substantially improves the current management processes. As such, it was decided to bring the document outside of the forum and finalize it as part of the CA Security Council. The CASC members and others will continue to enhance and manage the document. Microsoft also supports the document and has added the requirement to use the new standard for code signing certificates by February 1, 2017.
You may have heard that the CA/Browser Forum is getting ready to approve Baseline Requirements for Code Signing certificates. But why is this important?
Let’s back up and get some background on code signing. Software code that is digitally signed indicates to the user that the code has not been tampered with since it was signed. It also provides authenticity as to who signed it and when. With the advent of malware, it’s important to insure that the code which was written by the developer is the same code which you downloaded and installed into your computer or mobile phone. A digital signature is like a shrink wrap, protecting the code from modification without detection. Second, the code is signed with a digital certificate issued by a public certificate authority which has performed a verification check on the identity of the author. Malware authors don’t like to be identified, hence the likelihood of a legitimate code signing certificate being issued to a malware author is decreased.
