On Apr 12, 2021, at 12:22 PM, Joseph Salowey <[email protected]> wrote:
> [Joe]  without some sort of name matching using certs from a public CA is 
> unwise.  

  The only other alternative is to "pin" the server cert.  Many systems support 
this.  Perhaps mentioning Time of First Use (TOFU) would help here.

  i.e. if the peer pins both the CA and the server cert, then the contents of 
the server cert matter less.  All that matters is that the peer detects if/when 
the server cert changes.

  If we rely on names, then which one?  There are many fields in a certificate 
which could be used.

>   After looking into this in some depth, the only real thing you can depend 
> on is the CA.  If the CA is trusted, nothing else matters.  If the CA is not 
> trusted, then nothing else matters.
> 
> [Joe] In this case we would have to rule out CAs that are not under the 
> organizations control (public CAs)

  Only if the peer doesn't notice if the server cert changes.

  I think it's safe to recommend that clients pin both the server cert and the 
CA cert.  Anything else is "there be dragons".

  Alan DeKok.

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