5 ms·

Well, the web is evolving. If you're a sysadmin and you test everything in an ancient version of Firefox that doesn't display SSL errors, you're not getting an

Well, the web is evolving. If you're a sysadmin and you test everything in an ancient version of Firefox that doesn't display SSL errors, you're not getting an accurate picture of what the product's users will see. The latest browsers might entirely block people from visiting your site, display a huge warning, etc. and you wouldn't know. Maybe being a sysadmin requires getting the fixes, refreshes, rebranding as they come down the pipe? I'm also not a fan of the recent changes, just take a more defeatist attitude I guess!

5ilv3r 9y ago
No no no you missed what I am saying. I use horrible hardware appliances with built in md5 ssl certs for remote administration. I am not a web developer. I need to be able to access them to secure them and to work on hardware problems. This isn't even on the internet, this is on a local lan serving a small business. We're not going to buy new hardware because my browser updated, so I'm stuck having to boot up a mint 7 livecd vm to run firefox 4 every now and then. It's horrible.
- bengotow 9y ago
  Ahh I see! Sorry, I totally misread your message. Wow, that's a rough situation... If things get really bad, I think you could use a HTTPS proxy like Charles (https://www.charlesproxy.com/ https://www.charlesproxy.com/) to decrypt the traffic and re-encrypt it with a newer SSL cert before viewing it in Firefox. I'm not sure about Firefox, but you can run Chrome from the command line with `--allow-running-insecure-content --ignore-certificate-errors` and it'll load anything and everything. Maybe there's a similar mode for Firefox that will disable everything.
  - 5ilv3r 9y ago
    I've been working on a proxy for my retrocomputers, using it at work would be a pretty sad solutions. :( No one builds things to last more than 2 years anymore...
- mbell 9y ago
  > I need to be able to access them to secure them If they are using md5 ssl certs, it's unlikely securing them is possible. I wouldn't be surprised if there are a dozen or more security vulns in such outdated devices.
  - 5ilv3r 9y ago
    You secure them by firewalling them off after you change the default passwords. Old school but solid.
- cmurf 9y ago
  That's the problem of the hardware appliance, and the company who makes it has basically abandoned their customer if they have no updates that let you manage it with a modern browser. Who makes this product? They shouldn't be supported.
  - 5ilv3r 9y ago
    supermicro, F5, lantronix, cisco, netgear (in cisco pants), APC, and dell.
  - Silhouette 9y ago
    The trouble is, from the point of view of basically everyone producing those devices, the current "what will every browser do this week" situation is not a viable platform to support in the traditional way. They can tell you their box works with certain browsers that are available at the time you buy it, but why is -- or should -- it be their problem if they supply a working product and then someone they have no control over updates a browser they didn't know you were using and something breaks? If admins don't like this, they need to expect to pay a huge amount of money for ongoing support contracts that actively update to support new versions of browsers, or they need to stop demanding web-based config interfaces and get used to installing native software that uses proprietary protocols that will reliably still work next week as well. The idea that vendors of devices that often have working lifetimes of 5-10 years or more should be responsible for keeping up with every little browser update for every "evergreen" browser throughout that lifetime as part of routine support is just not commercially viable, and that's why approximately no-one offers it.

5ilv3r 9y ago

No no no you missed what I am saying. I use horrible hardware appliances with built in md5 ssl certs for remote administration. I am not a web developer. I need to be able to access them to secure them and to work on hardware problems. This isn't even on the internet, this is on a local lan serving a small business. We're not going to buy new hardware because my browser updated, so I'm stuck having to boot up a mint 7 livecd vm to run firefox 4 every now and then. It's horrible.

bengotow 9y ago
Ahh I see! Sorry, I totally misread your message. Wow, that's a rough situation... If things get really bad, I think you could use a HTTPS proxy like Charles (https://www.charlesproxy.com/ https://www.charlesproxy.com/) to decrypt the traffic and re-encrypt it with a newer SSL cert before viewing it in Firefox. I'm not sure about Firefox, but you can run Chrome from the command line with `--allow-running-insecure-content --ignore-certificate-errors` and it'll load anything and everything. Maybe there's a similar mode for Firefox that will disable everything.
- 5ilv3r 9y ago
  I've been working on a proxy for my retrocomputers, using it at work would be a pretty sad solutions. :( No one builds things to last more than 2 years anymore...
mbell 9y ago
> I need to be able to access them to secure them If they are using md5 ssl certs, it's unlikely securing them is possible. I wouldn't be surprised if there are a dozen or more security vulns in such outdated devices.
- 5ilv3r 9y ago
  You secure them by firewalling them off after you change the default passwords. Old school but solid.
cmurf 9y ago
That's the problem of the hardware appliance, and the company who makes it has basically abandoned their customer if they have no updates that let you manage it with a modern browser. Who makes this product? They shouldn't be supported.
- 5ilv3r 9y ago
  supermicro, F5, lantronix, cisco, netgear (in cisco pants), APC, and dell.
- Silhouette 9y ago
  The trouble is, from the point of view of basically everyone producing those devices, the current "what will every browser do this week" situation is not a viable platform to support in the traditional way. They can tell you their box works with certain browsers that are available at the time you buy it, but why is -- or should -- it be their problem if they supply a working product and then someone they have no control over updates a browser they didn't know you were using and something breaks? If admins don't like this, they need to expect to pay a huge amount of money for ongoing support contracts that actively update to support new versions of browsers, or they need to stop demanding web-based config interfaces and get used to installing native software that uses proprietary protocols that will reliably still work next week as well. The idea that vendors of devices that often have working lifetimes of 5-10 years or more should be responsible for keeping up with every little browser update for every "evergreen" browser throughout that lifetime as part of routine support is just not commercially viable, and that's why approximately no-one offers it.