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Eh, it's pretty easy to impersonate if the values in the certificate aren't checked, and you could get one from any of a list of public CAs. If you're relying
by nickf 8mo ago
Eh, it's pretty easy to impersonate if the values in the certificate aren't checked, and you could get one from any of a list of public CAs.
If you're relying on a certificate for authentication - issue it yourself.
- ajross 8mo agoPoint being that if you get a valid TLS connection from a client cert, and then you get another valid connection from the same cert tomorrow, you can be very certain that the entity connecting is either the same software environment that connected earlier, or an attacker that has compromised it. You can be cryptographically certain that it is not an attacker that hasn't effected a full compromise of your client. And there's value there, if you're a server. It's why XMPP wants federated servers to authenticate themselves with certificates in the first place.
- ahmedtd 8mo agoIf that's all you want to accomplish, you don't need WebPKI. Just generate a private key and a self-signed certificate. (This is basically how Let's Encrypt / ACME accounts work)
- jeroenhd 8mo agoHow do I convince the tens of thousands of other servers that my private key can be trusted without some kind of third party trust architecture? There's DANE but outside of maybe two countries that's impractical to set up because DNS providers keep messing up DNSSEC.
- the456gamer 8mo agoIf you are trusting a user since they are the same one that originally contacted you, you don't. It's tofu
- lmz 8mo agoI can't believe this was downvoted. Seriously a Certificate is binding a public key and the attributes (mainly the identity). If you don't need to use the attributes, you don't need a certificate!
- ajross 8mo ago> This is basically how Let's Encrypt / ACME accounts work That's how they're implemented. How they "work" is a trivial pushbutton thing as documented by a well-known and trusted provider who cares deeply about simple user experience. "Just self-sign a cert" is very much not the story XMPP wants their federated server operators to deal with.