Absolutely, it is important that CAs are transparent about these incidents,
that's why I said "if handled properly" - but I don't think that was an
issue here? I understand that Entrust has not provided many details, but
they did not hide the breach either. Removing CAs for non-critical security
breaches that are being properly handled and disclosed would probably
achieve the opposite, i.e. CAs trying to hide them completely.

Maybe there should be a policy that requires CAs to disclose incidents not
involving CA operations on Bugzilla in detail like they do mis-issuances?

Matthias Merkel

On Tue, Aug 23, 2022 at 9:52 PM Jeffrey Walton <[email protected]> wrote:

>
>
> On Tuesday, August 23, 2022 at 2:58:53 PM UTC-4 [email protected]
> wrote:
>
>> I agree that even considering removing a CA just because of a compromise
>> unrelated to CA infrastructure is completely inappropriate if the breach
>> has been handled well.
>>
>> As long as a breach is handled properly and learned from, there should be
>> no reason to take such drastic measures, especially if no misissuance
>> occurred. At least this allows for security problems to be resolved.
>>
>> If we remove every CA that ever had any incident of any kind, we will end
>> up with only new CAs that likely have even more security problems, just
>> ones no one has discovered yet.
>>
>
> I think you may be missing the bigger picture. The industry is built upon
> trust. Lack of transparency has some people concerned. I really don't trust
> companies when they say "trust us...". It makes the hair on the back of my
> neck stand up.
>
> "Trust us" failed with DigiNotar, and it failed with Symantec when they
> were repeatedly caught issuing certificates for domains not under their
> administrative control. Once the trust is lost the commodity the company is
> peddling evaporates.
>
> If Firefox or Chrome has a bug, the browsers are transparent about it. It
> usually lands in the bug tracker or change log. Everyone knows about due to
> the transparency. It is easy to trust a browser because we can verify it.
>
> Jeff
>
>
>> On Tue, 23 Aug 2022, 20:53 Phillip Hallam-Baker, <[email protected]>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Is Mozilla going to hold itself accountable to whatever absurd
>>> maximalist requirements come from the game of 'beat up the third party
>>> because we have power here'?
>>>
>>> Browsers have bugs. The result of a coding error that permits a script
>>> injection or buffer run attack is at least as serious as any error or
>>> omission by any CA. In my experience, those are found with much higher
>>> frequency than CA errors or omissions.
>>>
>>> The issue with DigiNotar was not that they were breached, it was that
>>> they lied about it. The breach itself was a lot more serious because of the
>>> way they had configured their internal systems but even that might have
>>> been fixable if they hadn't lied about the breach.
>>>
>>> I haven't worked for a CA for several years now. I do Threshold Key
>>> Infrastructure these days.
>>>
>>> On Tue, Aug 23, 2022 at 10:46 AM 'LB' via [email protected] <
>>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>>> It does not feel right, I agree Mr Hurst.
>>>>
>>>> More information from the attack is coming to light, and it is
>>>> concerning.
>>>>
>>>> To Mozilla: when the full extent of the leak comes out, with the data
>>>> (and it will) - what will be your threshold for action? Are you expecting
>>>> '-----begin rsa private key-----' or something less?
>>>>
>>>> Risk is posed to all users of Mozilla products (and also Microsoft and
>>>> Apple and Google who i am sure are having similar thoughts).
>>>>
>>>> At very least Entrust should stop issuing certificates - they should
>>>> have before.
>>>> why do we trust Entrust here?
>>>>
>>>> What will Mozilla do if it comes to light there was a real compromise
>>>> and huge risk and Mozilla knew privately but did nothing? Is risk to
>>>> internet users of no concern?
>>>>
>>>> Sent with Proton Mail <https://proton.me/> secure email.
>>>>
>>>> ------- Original Message -------
>>>> On Monday, August 22nd, 2022 at 16:47, Ryan Hurst <[email protected]>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> While that is positive news I will point out that in past incidenta
>>>> compromise of non-issuance related infrastructure enabled attackers to
>>>> achieve lateral movement which in turn led to deeper compromises, in some
>>>> cases such as DigiNotar, this led to miss-issuance.
>>>>
>>>> I think if nothing else this begs the question what kind of
>>>> notification requirements to the community should exist for such
>>>> situations.
>>>>
>>>> It just doesn't feel right that this incident is public and the only
>>>> details relating to its impact on the WebPKI is discovered by the community
>>>> in this fashion.
>>>>
>>>> Ryan Hurst
>>>> (Personal Capacity)
>>>>
>>>> On Mon, Aug 22, 2022 at 8:28 AM Ben Wilson <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Actually, Entrust reached out about a month ago with this message to
>>>>> me:
>>>>>
>>>>> *On June 18, 2022, we determined that an unauthorized party accessed
>>>>> certain of our systems used for internal operations – functions such as 
>>>>> HR,
>>>>> finance, and marketing. We promptly began an investigation with the
>>>>> assistance of a leading third-party cybersecurity firm and have informed
>>>>> law enforcement. *
>>>>>
>>>>> *While our investigation is ongoing, we have found no indication to
>>>>> date that the issue has affected the operation or security of our products
>>>>> and services, which are run in separate environments from our internal
>>>>> systems and are fully operational. Regarding our Public Certification
>>>>> Authority - all roots are offline and require multiple security cleared
>>>>> people be physically present in a secure room to access.*
>>>>>
>>>>> *We take seriously our responsibility to protect our systems and have
>>>>> been engaged with our customers on the issue. *
>>>>>
>>>>> As stated, there was no impact to our roots as the roots are offline
>>>>> and can only be accessed if two people are physically present in a secure
>>>>> room. Also, our PKI system is on a separated infrastructure, so was not
>>>>> accessed.
>>>>>
>>>>> Since there has been no impact to our PKI and certificate issuance
>>>>> systems, which use roots distributed by your application, we did not raise
>>>>> an incident.
>>>>>
>>>>> On Mon, Aug 22, 2022 at 9:26 AM 'LB' via [email protected] <
>>>>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Given news that Entrust were subject to a ransomware attack, which
>>>>>> until now they have not confirmed or given any details on in public - 
>>>>>> what
>>>>>> point do we need to assume the CAs and CA operations are compromized?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Should action be taken by Mozilla to eliminate risk and remove trust
>>>>>> in root authority?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>> --
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