5 ms·

How secure is ssl? Can't NSA fake a certificate?

by Ihmahr 13y ago

mbel 13y ago
Do they really need to fake it? It surely might be a part of the famous indirectly accessed data.
- Phlarp 13y ago
  This has been my question in this whole mess, if we assume NSA can and does subpoena the keys and certs as opposed to the direct data (and the NSA were copying data en masse, which now seems likely) would that not make HTTPS essentially useless?
  - claudius 13y ago
    The NSA is not the average guy listening in on your wifi and then using your CC to buy stuff online. HTTPS protects against those, and it does so relatively efficiently.
    - Phlarp 13y ago
      Sorry, I should have clarified that it negates HTTPS in the context of the NSA (and presumably other government actors around the world), still great protection from getting your facebook session hijacked over wifi. What about protection from the average NSA sysadmin or analyst with slightly less moral fiber than Edward Snowden? (or gambling debt, or a mental disease, or an obsession with your significant other etc.)
nwh 13y ago
I would continue under the assumption that they can and do. If confidentiality and authenticity is mission critical, you need to be using a hidden service rather than relying on SSL. A hidden service does not exit the network and does not rely on external validation.
icebraining 13y ago
I'm sure they can "ask nicely" to get a working cert from a CA. It's why newer versions of browsers are implementing certificate pinning, which should help (but not solve) with the issue by locking the browser to a specific certificate.
noerps 13y ago
To answer a complex question: SSL/TLS isn't the problem, the certificates are.
Sami_Lehtinen 13y ago
If you're running secure site, you should use your certificate & signature. Even then NSA could well be capable of creating fake certificate, but it would be expensive. But that would stop others without huge computing capacity. Of course this requires that you're able to deliver your own CA information securely to your site users. Also end users should disable trust for any browser/OS build-in CAs.

How secure is ssl? Can't NSA fake a certificate?

by Ihmahr 13y ago

How secure is ssl? Can't NSA fake a certificate?

mbel 13y ago

Do they really need to fake it? It surely might be a part of the famous indirectly accessed data.

Phlarp 13y ago
This has been my question in this whole mess, if we assume NSA can and does subpoena the keys and certs as opposed to the direct data (and the NSA were copying data en masse, which now seems likely) would that not make HTTPS essentially useless?
- claudius 13y ago
  The NSA is not the average guy listening in on your wifi and then using your CC to buy stuff online. HTTPS protects against those, and it does so relatively efficiently.
  - Phlarp 13y ago
    Sorry, I should have clarified that it negates HTTPS in the context of the NSA (and presumably other government actors around the world), still great protection from getting your facebook session hijacked over wifi. What about protection from the average NSA sysadmin or analyst with slightly less moral fiber than Edward Snowden? (or gambling debt, or a mental disease, or an obsession with your significant other etc.)

nwh 13y ago

I would continue under the assumption that they can and do. If confidentiality and authenticity is mission critical, you need to be using a hidden service rather than relying on SSL. A hidden service does not exit the network and does not rely on external validation.

icebraining 13y ago

I'm sure they can "ask nicely" to get a working cert from a CA. It's why newer versions of browsers are implementing certificate pinning, which should help (but not solve) with the issue by locking the browser to a specific certificate.

noerps 13y ago

To answer a complex question: SSL/TLS isn't the problem, the certificates are.

Sami_Lehtinen 13y ago

If you're running secure site, you should use your certificate & signature. Even then NSA could well be capable of creating fake certificate, but it would be expensive. But that would stop others without huge computing capacity. Of course this requires that you're able to deliver your own CA information securely to your site users. Also end users should disable trust for any browser/OS build-in CAs.