A question, if I might: I’m not understanding the “massive revalidation of all 
existing domains” part here. My understanding is that if we alter the methods 
of validation, you would need to ensure that any applicants from that date 
forward are validated under acceptable methods, which may mean searching your 
database of validated domains and marking some as requiring revalidation, but 
that shouldn’t require you to immediately revalidate them unless they’re 
applying for a certificate…or should it?

 

That is, if I’ve previously validated “www.example.com” but using a 
now-unacceptable method, do I immediately need to revalidate “example.com” the 
day the ballot takes effect (and revoke its certs if the validation fails?), or 
do I merely need to ensure that when “[x].example.com” presents a new 
certificate application after the ballot takes effect, I re-validate them using 
acceptable methods?

 

As a follow-up, let’s assume that yes, I do need to immediately revalidate all 
domain information obtained using non-conforming methods, even without a new 
certificate request in hand. Even assuming that, I don’t have to re-validate 
anything that conformed prior to the ballot, right? So we’re talking about 
finding certificates that are currently valid but were validated using 
non-conforming methods, which should mean a search of issuance records to 
identify now-invalid information and either marking it for re-validation in the 
future or just biting the bullet and re-validating it right away.

 

Just trying to unpack the scope of the problem here a bit.

 

-- 

Jos Purvis ([email protected])

.:|:.:|:. cisco systems  | Cryptographic Services

PGP: 0xFD802FEE07D19105  | +1 919.991.9114 (desk)

 

 

From: Public <[email protected]> on behalf of Kirk Hall via Public 
<[email protected]>
Reply-To: CA/Browser Forum Public Discussion List <[email protected]>
Date: Friday, 28 April, 2017 at 12:37 
To: Peter Bowen <[email protected]>, CA/Browser Forum Public Discussion List 
<[email protected]>
Cc: Kirk Hall <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [cabfpub] [EXTERNAL]Re: Ballot 190

 

Yes, that’s good information on possible exploits - thanks.  That’s why we 
worked so long on improving BR 3.2.2.4 – as you may recall, I was deeply 
involved in that, and very supportive.

 

But I’d really like to know if there is evidence that cert “misissuance” 
occurred in the past because of these potential vulnerabilities.  Do you know 
if there is any data on that?  I think we would need more than one or two 
anecdotal (and maybe unconfirmable) stories to justify revetting of all 
outstanding domains by all CAs.  The improvements will be implemented over 
time, on a going-forward basis.

 

As Gerv said, there will be significant reluctance to change / improve 
validation methods in the future if it always requires massive revalidation of 
all existing domains, without a showing of actual past abuses and related 
security concerns.

 

From: Peter Bowen [mailto:[email protected]] 
Sent: Friday, April 28, 2017 9:31 AM
To: CA/Browser Forum Public Discussion List <[email protected]>
Cc: Kirk Hall <[email protected]>
Subject: [EXTERNAL]Re: [cabfpub] Ballot 190

 

 

On Apr 28, 2017, at 9:06 AM, Kirk Hall via Public <[email protected]> wrote:

 

1.  It appears from various comments over time that your biggest concern about 
re-use of prior validation data relates to method 3.2.2.4.6 – Agreed Upon 
Change to Website.  Old method 6 required “Having the Applicant demonstrate 
practical control over the FQDN by making an agreed-upon change to information 
found on an online Web page identified by a uniform resource identifier 
containing the FQDN”

 

New method 6 requires specified content be posted to a 
"/.well‐known/pki‐validation" directory, which no CA has ever done (because 
this path is brand new, and created for the updated version of this validation 
method).  So prohibiting reuse of data collected under old method 6 will 
necessarily require revalidation of ALL domains ever validated under old method 
6.  As I indicated on the CABF teleconference yesterday, this will require some 
CAs (including Entrust) to manually review EVERY domain validation we have done 
to determine which used old method 6, versus other approved methods.  This 
would be a massive undertaking, and something CAs won’t want to do unless there 
is a demonstrated security need.

 

Can you share with us the facts, data, evidence, etc. that leads you to believe 
that the domain validations previously done under old method 6 pose a 
significant security threat to users?  Any statistics to back this up?  I’m not 
challenging you, I’m just asking you for data that supports what you want us to 
do.  We are not aware of any instance where we used old method 6 and later 
discovered that the domain should not have been authorized for the customer.

 

Kirk,

 

I did some research on this back when we were working on ballot 169.  See 
https://cabforum.org/pipermail/public/2016-April/007504.html and 
https://cabforum.org/pipermail/public/2016-April/007506.html

 

We know that all the following were valid under the old method 6:

 

- Allowing the certificate requester to specify the URI.  For example, if the 
certificate wanted shop.example.com, the requester could say “check at 
http://shop.example.com/tmp/uploads/foo.txt” for the agreed upon change

 

- Looking for the change anywhere in the page.  The CA would give the requester 
a token to put on the website and then look for it to appear somewhere on the 
page.  This is a huge problem for sites that have public comments, message 
boards, or user-editable content.  For example, validate “control” of 
www.ibm.com by posting a message containing the token at 
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/forums/html/public

 

- Simply looking for the existence of a  file by name.  For example telling the 
customer to create http://<FQDN>/adfa24r43aefwaer2442.txt and not caring about 
the content.

 

- Looking for a content to be returned from the server that was included in the 
URL and not checking the HTTP return code.

 

I would also note that other “old” methods have similar issues.  For example, 
there was no requirement that email validation used a unique token per request. 
 It would have been valid to send an email saying “Does this email work?” to 
the domain owner and using an out-of-office auto-reply as proof of 
“communication”, as the requirement was only “Communicating with” the email 
address.

 

Does that help explain the concern?

 

Thanks,

Peter

 

From: Ryan Sleevi [mailto:[email protected]] 

Sent: Friday, April 28, 2017 6:09 AM
To: Kirk Hall <[email protected]>
Cc: CA/Browser Forum Public Discussion List <[email protected]>; Wayne Thayer 
<[email protected]>
Subject: [EXTERNAL]Re: [cabfpub] Ballot 190

 

 

 

On Fri, Apr 28, 2017 at 1:32 AM, Kirk Hall <[email protected]> 
wrote:

One other comment.  Remember that for the last few months, new Methods 1-4 and 
7-10 were actually included under Method 11 “any other method” after Ballot 
181’s effective date, and that situation will continue until the effective date 
of Ballot 190.  Also, the same is true for any validations that followed old 
Method 7 “any other method” prior to the effective date of Ballot 169.  So be 
very careful in saying anything in Ballot 190 that would invalidate validations 
done prior to Ballot 190 under “any other method” so long as they complied with 
any of Methods 1-10 of the new methods or Methods 1-6 of the old methods.

 

I would be open to saying that any prior vetting done under old Method 7 or 
more recent Method 11 “any other method” must be revalidated upon the effective 
date of Ballot 190 IF they did not follow EITHER Methods 1-6 (as the existed 
before Ballot 169) or Methods 1-10 (as put forward in Ballot 169).  In other 
words, the ONLY validations that have to be redone before the expiration of the 
re-use period are validations that were done that did not comply with either 
old Methods 1-6 or new Methods 1-10.  That should flush out any unknown and 
unsecure validations that occurred in the past.

 

Not quite, because if you recall, Google's interest in reforming these began 
with the fact that a website demonstration of control was not secure. That is, 
3.2.2.4.6 under pre-169 is not acceptable.

 

Kirk, given your support for other forms of indicating that a CA has performed 
extra diligence, such as the inclusion of OV certificates, would you be 
supportive in general of a means of expressing, within a certificate, 
conformance with the 'new' validation methods, so that subscribers can have 
assurances of the security? 

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