The suggestion for that date is based on our discussions with customers about 
the time that it will take for organizations to change their practices, rather 
than the specific motivation for the deprecation.

From: Ryan Dickson <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, September 16, 2024 12:48 PM
To: Ponds-White, Trev <[email protected]>; CA/B Forum Server Certificate WG 
Public Discussion List <[email protected]>
Cc: Ben Wilson <[email protected]>; Pedro FUENTES <[email protected]>
Subject: RE: [EXTERNAL] [Servercert-wg] - Sunsetting use of WHOIS to identify 
Domain Contacts


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Hi Trev,

I interpret the 
motivation<https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/security/aws-certificate-manager-will-discontinue-whois-lookup-for-email-validated-certificates/#:~:text=Why%20are%20we,of%20this%20post.>
 for the behavior described in the link you shared as a matter of overcoming 
the low success rate of WHOIS-based communications (“Over the past several 
years, we’ve observed that the WHOIS lookup success rate has declined to less 
than 5 percent. If you rely on the contact addresses listed in the WHOIS 
database provided by your domain registrar to validate your domain ownership, 
this might create an availability risk.”)

The motivation for the ballot is focused on managing a separate risk, closing 
circumstances that can be actively exploited and result in fraudulent 
certificate issuance (and worse, abuse given the existence of that 
certificate). Given this perspective, can you help me better understand what 
you'd consider an appropriate timeline to close what could be considered an 
open vulnerability with this DCV method?

Thanks,
Ryan

On Mon, Sep 16, 2024 at 1:12 PM Ponds-White, Trev via Servercert-wg 
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Thanks for putting this together Ryan. As some might be aware Amazon began a 
process earlier this year to remove use of this method. 
(https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/security/aws-certificate-manager-will-discontinue-whois-lookup-for-email-validated-certificates/)

We got feedback from customers that for some this is a non-trivial dependency 
to remove. It’s not uncommon for companies to have built automation on top of 
email validation. Based on the information we got I recommend a date of April 
30, 2025.

From: Servercert-wg 
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> 
On Behalf Of Ben Wilson via Servercert-wg
Sent: Monday, September 16, 2024 9:16 AM
To: Pedro FUENTES <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>; CA/B 
Forum Server Certificate WG Public Discussion List 
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>
Subject: RE: [EXTERNAL] [Servercert-wg] [EXTERNAL]- Sunsetting use of WHOIS to 
identify Domain Contacts


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links or open attachments unless you can confirm the sender and know the 
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Mozilla will endorse, too, if needed.
Thanks,
Ben

On Mon, Sep 16, 2024 at 9:06 AM Pedro FUENTES via Servercert-wg 
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
OISTE would endorse this initiative

On 16 Sep 2024, at 16:32, Ryan Dickson via Servercert-wg 
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:

All,

In light of recent events where research from WatchTowr Labs demonstrated how 
threat actors could exploit WHOIS to obtain fraudulently issued TLS 
certificates [1] and follow-on discussions in MDSP [2][3], we drafted an 
introductory proposal [4] to sunset the use of WHOIS for identifying Domain 
Contacts.

The proposal sets a prohibition against relying on WHOIS to identify Domain 
Contacts beginning 11/1/2024.

While publicly-trusted CA Owners are required to disclose and maintain in-use 
DCV methods to the CCADB [5], the collected data lacks specificity, hindering 
our ability to assess the extent of reliance on WHOIS and the potential impact 
of transitioning away from it.

Feedback on the proposal (preferably using comments or suggestions on the Pull 
Request via GitHub) along with volunteers for endorsers would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Ryan

P.S., I apologize if this effort is redundant to discussions already taking 
place in the Forum, I was traveling last week and am catching up on email.

[1] 
https://labs.watchtowr.com/we-spent-20-to-achieve-rce-and-accidentally-became-the-admins-of-mobi/<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__labs.watchtowr.com_we-2Dspent-2D20-2Dto-2Dachieve-2Drce-2Dand-2Daccidentally-2Dbecame-2Dthe-2Dadmins-2Dof-2Dmobi_&d=DwMFaQ&c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&r=-bX5hBm1IdRDykQ-dBR8tsFRCM4v1VXUyG7RZa2WqPY&m=1CJcldkOKNaH6Tu9kiTliBmTMzTdtFrQ0USL5juRHSkA78re2Z_FuT3Hr1z1Cd6m&s=qZzpnP-57sE4nQ6LxHM50ULVrjSKSIk2Fccl0d8PESE&e=>
[2] 
https://groups.google.com/a/mozilla.org/g/dev-security-policy/c/FuOi_uhQB6U<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__groups.google.com_a_mozilla.org_g_dev-2Dsecurity-2Dpolicy_c_FuOi-5FuhQB6U&d=DwMFaQ&c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&r=-bX5hBm1IdRDykQ-dBR8tsFRCM4v1VXUyG7RZa2WqPY&m=1CJcldkOKNaH6Tu9kiTliBmTMzTdtFrQ0USL5juRHSkA78re2Z_FuT3Hr1z1Cd6m&s=31lolz5JP-8ykEL9HDAxaX6AcVj3rFj7LwOwRxwFkZg&e=>
[3] 
https://groups.google.com/a/mozilla.org/g/dev-security-policy/c/mAl9XjieSkA<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__groups.google.com_a_mozilla.org_g_dev-2Dsecurity-2Dpolicy_c_mAl9XjieSkA&d=DwMFaQ&c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&r=-bX5hBm1IdRDykQ-dBR8tsFRCM4v1VXUyG7RZa2WqPY&m=1CJcldkOKNaH6Tu9kiTliBmTMzTdtFrQ0USL5juRHSkA78re2Z_FuT3Hr1z1Cd6m&s=37YIE6Jw_R8c8obIjNP3qo3yo9YW36r4WMZH76HyUGM&e=>
[4] 
https://github.com/cabforum/servercert/pull/548<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__github.com_cabforum_servercert_pull_548&d=DwMFaQ&c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&r=-bX5hBm1IdRDykQ-dBR8tsFRCM4v1VXUyG7RZa2WqPY&m=1CJcldkOKNaH6Tu9kiTliBmTMzTdtFrQ0USL5juRHSkA78re2Z_FuT3Hr1z1Cd6m&s=vBGh-YJqmgDPKGnq5cAcEuu__uSmeZaCK_EGoFkB-Kc&e=>
[5] 
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IXL8Yk12gPQs8GXiosXCPLPgATJilaiVy-f9SbsMA28/edit?gid=268412787#gid=268412787<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__docs.google.com_spreadsheets_d_1IXL8Yk12gPQs8GXiosXCPLPgATJilaiVy-2Df9SbsMA28_edit-3Fgid-3D268412787-23gid-3D268412787&d=DwMFaQ&c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&r=-bX5hBm1IdRDykQ-dBR8tsFRCM4v1VXUyG7RZa2WqPY&m=1CJcldkOKNaH6Tu9kiTliBmTMzTdtFrQ0USL5juRHSkA78re2Z_FuT3Hr1z1Cd6m&s=nHPN4vmJhl30c7Nh_y7NmG73eUtxjUstZR6YNcUH0o4&e=>

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