On 11 September 2014 16:21, Stephen Kent <[email protected]> wrote:
> Ben,
>>
>> Until there is such a mechanism, omitting serial numbers makes it hard
>> (or impossible?) for anyone to take effective action on violations
>> discovered via CT. So, CT has to require serial numbers until then.
>> This language allows that to happen.
>
> I think we're in agreement, which I why I proposed an alternative
> mechanism to log serial numbers, without requiring a CA to have
> to assign them prior to final cert issuance.

I managed to miss that proposal. I've found it now.

There seems to be a flaw: if I'm an evil CA wishing to issue an evil
certificate, I simply log a precert, minus serial, get an SCT*, log a
certificate containing that SCT*, which I then revoke when requested
to do so,

In order to attack a user with the evil certificate, I simply issue a
second copy with a different serial, containing the original SCT*, and
the certificate works. Yes, the discrepancy should be discovered in
audit, but that is a significantly weaker protection than we get if
the serial is included in the pre-certificate.

Also this adds quite a lot of complexity in order to allow what
appears to be, so far, an entirely theoretical use case.

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