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Does anyone know if the Chinese gov't could use information gathered by CNNIC for issuing the certificate to decrypt traffic it intercepts encrypted by the publ
by AndrewHampton 17y ago
Does anyone know if the Chinese gov't could use information gathered by CNNIC for issuing the certificate to decrypt traffic it intercepts encrypted by the public key?
- tarkin2 17y agoCNNIC would only ever see the public key, and you can't decrypt encrypted data using the public key--you must use the private key to decrypt the data, something CNNIC would not see--so no. As mentioned, CNNIC's inclusion only allows a Man In The Middle Attack. That is, CNNIC, i.e. the Chinese government, pretending to be a site they're not, and using their status as a Firefox (and other) -authorised root certificate provider to further trick the user into accepting the bogus SSL certificate as originating from the hijacked domain.
- AndrewHampton 17y agoOK, thanks for the explanation.