Re: [cap-talk] A petname toolbar for Firefox

[Tyler Close]

On Feb 18, 2005, at 8:36 AM, Ka-Ping Yee wrote:
>
> On Fri, 18 Feb 2005, Tyler Close wrote:
>> You can find the petname toolbar for Firefox at:
>>
>> http://www.waterken.com/user/PetnameToolbar/
>
> I just tried it out.  It works pretty well!

Thanks.

>  There's one thing i
> don't understand, though.  Why do you store the petname keyed by
> the root CA's fingerprint instead of the site's fingerprint?
> (I see that you still use the domain name so that different
> domains signed by the same CA are distinct, but i don't see why
> the CA's certificate needs to be involved at all.)

Under HTTPS, the end entity certificate typically has a lifetime of only
1 year. The only persistent identifier for the site is the ( domain
name, CA public key ) pair.

Binding the petname to a non-persistent site identifier would suck, as
the binding would regularly become invalid, producing a situation much
like a spoofing attack. This interaction model would desensitize the
user to broken petnames, undermining the protection model.

The above, among other reasons, is why petnames are much more powerful
when used in tandem with HTTPSY. Perhaps we can get there in stages.
Anyone want to volunteer to implement HTTPSY for Firefox?

Tyler

---
The web-calculus is the union of REST and capability-based security:
http://www.waterken.com/dev/Web/