Welcome Guest. | Log In | Register | Membership Benefits


Topics:   Authentication Tech Center : Security Views

On Trusting Certificate Authorities

The time has come for a way to vet CAs by reputation

Nov 14, 2011 | 09:01 AM | 

By Taher Elgamal
Dark Reading

I get questions almost daily about the weaknesses of the certificate authorities (CAs) that are today “trusted” in every browser. The decision we made years ago to use PKI as the cornerstone for security in SSL and the early Web is under attack because of the poor practices of some CAs and the fact that we could not tell or remove these from our trusted lists without patching the browsers.

We knew since the beginning that the trust model in browsers is not sufficient. Almost every online business now has some reputation elements that the Internet can help establish and inform the users. It is ironic that the businesses that are the core of the trust of the entire e-commerce world lack any reputation support.

It could be time for some Internet entity to start to collect reputation data on CAs, and serve users and other entities in that regard. As long as root keys are hard-coded into browsers, we are not able to revoke CAs, which is obviously a missing component of any PKI system. So, in the meantime, can we at least help the community?

Eventually, PKI implementations in browsers need to be revisited. Browser vendors are, in fact, the root of trust, regardless of opinions and business practices. And as such, it would have been so much easier for the browser to sign CA root keys instead of just hard-coding.

Recognized in the industry as the "inventor of SSL," Dr. Taher Elgamal led the SSL efforts at Netscape. He also wrote the SSL patent and promoted SSL as the Internet security standard within standard committees and the industry. Dr. Elgamal invented several industry and government standards in data security and digital signatures area, including the DSS government standard for digital signatures. In addition to serving on numerous corporate advisory boards, Dr. Elgamal is the Chief Security Officer at Axway, a global provider of multi-enterprise solutions and infrastructure. He holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University. View more of his blog posts here.



Currently we allow the following HTML tags in comments:

Single tags

These tags can be used alone and don't need an ending tag.

<br> Defines a single line break

<hr> Defines a horizontal line

Matching tags

These require an ending tag - e.g. <i>italic text</i>

<a> Defines an anchor

<b> Defines bold text

<big> Defines big text

<blockquote> Defines a long quotation

<caption> Defines a table caption

<cite> Defines a citation

<code> Defines computer code text

<em> Defines emphasized text

<fieldset> Defines a border around elements in a form

<h1> This is heading 1

<h2> This is heading 2

<h3> This is heading 3

<h4> This is heading 4

<h5> This is heading 5

<h6> This is heading 6

<i> Defines italic text

<p> Defines a paragraph

<pre> Defines preformatted text

<q> Defines a short quotation

<samp> Defines sample computer code text

<small> Defines small text

<span> Defines a section in a document

<s> Defines strikethrough text

<strike> Defines strikethrough text

<strong> Defines strong text

<sub> Defines subscripted text

<sup> Defines superscripted text

<u> Defines underlined text

Dark Reading encourages readers to engage in spirited, healthy debate, including taking us to task. However, Dark Reading moderates all comments posted to our site, and reserves the right to modify or remove any content that it determines to be derogatory, offensive, inflammatory, vulgar, irrelevant/off-topic, racist or obvious marketing/SPAM. Dark Reading further reserves the right to disable the profile of any commenter participating in said activities.

Disqus Tips To upload an avatar photo, first complete your Disqus profile. | View the list of supported HTML tags you can use to style comments. | Please read our commenting policy.
Subscribe to RSS



Authentication Reports

report What's Next for Certificate Technology
A recent rash of certificate authority breaches has left a bad taste in many people's mouths. There is no one reason for the breaches. The compromises were the result of a breakdown in people, processes and technology, but not necessarily the certificates themselves. We take a look at what?s wrong with certificate technology, what can be done to fix it, and what's down the road for certificates and CAs.

report Will Smartcards Live Up to Their Name?
Recent compromises of smartcard data have exacerbated concerns about the technology?s privacy, security and standards (or lack thereof). Yet the promise of smartcards is too compelling to ignore. New technologies and applications prompt us to take a fresh look.

report Get The Best Of Biometrics
As data volume and sensitivity grow, companies cannot rely on password- and token-based authentication. Biometrics can be used to provide strong access control, but you must weigh added complexity and costs against assurance that users are who they say they are.

Other reports from the Authentication Tech Center:




Featured Webcasts
Featured Whitepapers
Featured Reports