Re: Number of CAs (was: Mandatory encryption as part of HTTP2)

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Il giorno 16/nov/2013, alle ore 23:08, Theodore Ts'o <tytso@xxxxxxx> ha scritto:

> On Sat, Nov 16, 2013 at 03:11:34PM -0500, Phillip Hallam-Baker wrote:
>> But as is well known, many CAs own multiple embedded roots, typically three
>> or four brands per large CA and each brand often has several roots. The
>> conclusion that the EFF has been peddling is that there are 600 parties
>> that can introduce spurious certs, this is not what their evidence
>> demonstrates.
>> 
>> My point was that like the 'Gore claimed to invent internet meme' this has
>> become a zombie lie that is repeated by people despite the fact that it has
>> been repeatedly shown to be false. People like to believe it because it
>> reinforces their prejudices but that does not make it true.
>> 
>> We should not be making policy decisions on the basis of zombie lies.
> 
> Whether the number is 100, or 600, or a thousand (and note that even
> if there are dozens or even hundreds of CA's being run by one
> "organization", those CA's may be run by different personnel, and have
> different policies, and have their certificate signing keys stored in
> different ways (i.e., some may be stored on some minimum wage worker's
> laptop; others may be stored in some Tempest Shielded fancy-shamancy
> BBN secure signing box requiring multiple crypto ignitition keys
> before certificates can be issued) --- how you count the CA's or
> organizations I don't think is really all that important.  Even if
> it's only 100 organizations, or even 50, do you really believe they
> can all be trusted, and are you willing to assert that they will all
> never having any process or technological failures?
> 
> And if you believe that all dozen, or 50, or 100 certificate
> organizations can be considered trustworthy, care to explain some of
> the more spectacular failures (i.e., Comodo, Diginotar, etc.)?
> 
> Quibbling over numbers doesn't change the the fundamental premise,
> which is that the certificate signing architecture for the web is
> considered by some (including myself), to be pretty badly broken.
> 
> Regards,

there is another point to take into account:

switching to a CA based web means kill the natural peering nature of the web

I can easy publish a plain http html page on my router without ask for permission at any CA out there and the client Firefox shows it

forcing a new crypto-web based on the actual CA multilevel grants could kill the web as we know now

Luca





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