Hi David, >>> Most private keys are issued by, not merely certified by, the CAs. >> Can you give numerical evidence for this claim? >> > Device certificates (those that go into mass manufactured products) > typically have the CA provide both keys and cert. The back and forth of > keygen->CSR->Sign->Return per product does not fit in the mindset of a > manufacturer. > > I suspect this is more certs than all the web site certs put together.
An interesting point, certainly. Two caveats, both of which I have to systematically verify for SSL, however (I have already verified them for SSH): 1) Mass-produced devices like to use default keys - Heninger et al. showed that quite conclusively last year. I.e. we are not looking at distinct certificates, and not such ones for private use. I can verify that with our latest scan of today, which was IPv4-wide. It will take me a bit to wade through the subjects, issuers, SKID and AKID. 2) On the same line: why have a device key signed by a CA anyway if you are going to use it for all devices of one line? 3) When we look at distinct certs, I am not so sure that your argument "more than all Web certs put together" still holds. Again, I need a moment to check that. Ralph -- Ralph Holz I8 - Network Architectures and Services Technische Universität München http://www.net.in.tum.de/de/mitarbeiter/holz/ Phone +49.89.289.18043 PGP: A805 D19C E23E 6BBB E0C4 86DC 520E 0C83 69B0 03EF _______________________________________________ cryptography mailing list cryptography@randombit.net http://lists.randombit.net/mailman/listinfo/cryptography
