4 ms·
How would you otherwise know that xoom.com is really PayPal? I believe it is PayPal because DigiCert say it is (with EV). That is much better than no validatio
by Genbox 5y ago
How would you otherwise know that xoom.com is really PayPal?
I believe it is PayPal because DigiCert say it is (with EV). That is much better than no validation - which is the default.
Domains are not identities. They are a reference to an organization. PayPal owns more than 100 domains. Not only did DigiCert validate the organisation through various procedures (e-mail, paystub, id), but the validation is also asserted through a X500 name, which is cryptographically signed in the X509 certificate. So there is no way for others to spoof the identity.
Attackers can easily copy the HTML/CSS/JS the website to look and feel exactly like PayPal. Then they can go to Lets Encrypt and get a certificate, which offers no assertion on their identity, other than "Attackers own the domain paypal.xom.com" (a domain they purchased to spoof PayPal).
In that case, the EV certificate is the _only_ way you can check if it is really PayPal.