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from the honestly,-it's-for-your-own-good... dept.
Safari will, later this year, no longer accept new HTTPS certificates that expire more than 13 months from their creation date. That means websites using long-life SSL/TLS certs issued after the cut-off point will throw up privacy errors in Apple's browser.
The policy was unveiled by the iGiant at a Certification Authority Browser Forum (CA/Browser) meeting on Wednesday. Specifically, according to those present at the confab, from September 1, any new website cert valid for more than 398 days will not be trusted by the Safari browser and instead rejected. Older certs, issued prior to the deadline, are unaffected by this rule.
By implementing the policy in Safari, Apple will, by extension, enforce it on all iOS and macOS devices. This will put pressure on website admins and developers to make sure their certs meet Apple's requirements – or risk breaking pages on a billion-plus devices and computers.
[...] Shortening the lifespan of certificates does come with some drawbacks. It has been noted that by increasing the frequency of certificate replacements, Apple and others are also making life a little more complicated for site owners and businesses that have to manage the certificates and compliance.
"Companies need to look to automation to assist with certificate deployment, renewal, and lifecycle management to reduce human overhead and the risk of error as the frequency of certificate replacement increase," Callan told us.
We note Let's Encrypt issues free HTTPS certificates that expire after 90 days, and provides tools to automate renewals, so those will be just fine – and they are used all over the web now. El Reg's cert is a year-long affair so we'll be OK.
GitHub.com uses a two-year certificate, which would fall foul of Apple's rules though it was issued before the cut-off deadline. However, it is due to be renewed by June, so there's plenty of opportunity to sort that out. Apple's website has a year-long HTTPS cert that needs renewing in October.
Microsoft is an interesting one: its dot-com's cert is a two-year affair, which expires in October. If Redmond renews it for another two years, it'll trip up over Safari's policy.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Tuesday February 25 2020, @04:10AM (3 children)
Not using HTTPS means a user's password will be sent in plaintext over the Internet every time that user logs in. What steps should one take to plan an authentication means around an expectation of such repeated disclosure of the shared secret?
All third-party web browsers in the iOS App Store are wrappers for the WebKit engine of Safari.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by barbara hudson on Tuesday February 25 2020, @01:53PM (2 children)
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Pino P on Tuesday February 25 2020, @02:16PM (1 child)
It's not a lie if the error message states that Safari is rejecting the certificate for a reason other than an expiration date in the past.
Good luck making antitrust charges stick with the current lineup of the Supreme Court of the United States.
(Score: 3, Informative) by barbara hudson on Wednesday February 26 2020, @02:10AM
The article is quite specific:
Rejecting a valid certificate and stating that the site cannot be trusted because of the certificate OR ANY OTHER REASON is a lie. I have no sympathy for Apple on, this, same as I have no sympathy for Google forcing certs to expire at 3 years instead of 3.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.