Categories
Security

The latest on handling of SHA-1 certificates by the major browsers

Intro
A certain organization is still using SHA-1 certificates internally, in spite of years of warnings, as I write this in February, 2017. But in the security world lack of action = eventual weakness. Ignorance is not bliss and putting your head in the sand is not a viable security strategy. So cracks in their approach are starting to appear, especially with the Chrome browser, the latest version of which is showing their internal SSL sites as not secure.

I found these security blog links in the references section below very helpful in getting a feel for what the major browsers take on all this is. A colleague brought them to my attention.

Solutions
The obvious solution is for them to switch to a PKI based on SHA-256 (also known as SHA-2 for short). But apparently it is like turning an aircraft carrier, or maybe pushing a planet into a different orbit, as bureaucratic inertia keeps progress on this front at the level of barely perceptible.

Here’s an image of that part of Chrome that shows the result of an https Intranet site access:

References and related
These are all from the October – November 2016 time frame.
Google security blog: SHA-1 certificates in Chrome
Mozilla security blog: Phasing Out SHA-1 on the Public Web
Microsoft Edge Developer: SHA-1 deprecation countdown