Distrusting Comodo


Update: The certificate has finally been revoked, after I have brought it up a month ago. Comodo’s Technical Support Team Lead gave me a reason why it all goes to hell is because my order is attached with an e-mail address, so I have to send the request via that e-mail. It is perfectly fine except that neither Comodo support staff nor GoGetSSL knows this should be done within this way, as Comodo’s support staff are redirecting me to go back to GoGetSSL to solve the problem at the first place.


This is not an article about Comodo being distrusted by main-stream browsers, but just me.

In short, Comodo failed to act as a trusted Certificate Authority. I recently bought a certificate from their reseller GoGetSSL and the transmit of the private key was initially not safe because I did it on a Chinese software which has zero encrypt on the messages and have files copied on their server. So we ( me and my client ) decided to re-issue the certificate and asked GoGetSSL to revoke the old one. Things start out smoothly as GoGetSSL ask for specific certification to revoke, and said that Comodo will do it in 12 hours.

Well, 12 hours past, but nothing happened on the old certificate. CRL and OCSP still validates it ( according to https://certificate.revocationcheck.com/ ). So I request it again, and GoGetSSL’s customer service try to revoke it again, some days had past, nothing happened.

Then, I tried to get in touch with Comodo by their Official website’s ticket system, I clarified the issue and want to know if they have anything to say about it, or even will it actually be GoGetSSL’s fault in this. But nope, all they replied was this:

Thank you for contacting Comodo, we will be happy to assist you.  Please contact the party in which the certificate was purchased from in regards to any revocation of your certificate.  If you have any further questions or concerns feel free to contact us again.

Which basically said nothing.

A few days ago, I published an article saying why am I deciding to move my own website’s certificate to GlobalSign because I felt Comodo is being to feel like it is “Too big to fail”. And now, if a trusted certificate authority, could not even complete the most basic part of a certification, which is validate and revoke, it’s out my friend.

Going back to GlobalSign

幾年前, xoxo 在 V2EX 上賣非法渠道的 AlphaSSL 通配符,成為了本博客的第一張證書。

因為那次的事件, GlobalSign 的信用在我心目中直線下降,以至於我以為“野卡”這個詞就是針對 GlobalSign 才出現的。

近期 CA 界好不熱鬧,繼 WoSign 事件之後 Symantec 又開始跟 Google 幹架, Comodo 趁機坐上了證書市場份額的第一把椅子。發生了這麼多事情,對我來說也是時候要重新審視自己博客證書用的 Comodo 了。

經過很多個星期對當下 CA 以及 SSL 界的文檔研究,發現各大 CA 在歷史上都有過不輕的安全事故, Let’s Encrypt 以及 COMODO 包攬釣魚域名證書發行量前二, Let’s Encrypt 作為一個目標是全免費全自動化的證書發行工具,還可以說他們的願景並不是審核網站內容,但 COMODO 是不是有點說不過去…

然後看看 Symantec ,他們收購了 Verisign 之後穩坐份額第一很久了,這次 Google 幹架估計把他們的信用也嗆的厲害… RapidSSL , Thawte , GeoTrust 全都是他家的,於是這些品牌直接以同一理由出局,希望 Symantec 能夠在這場跟 Google 的戰役中打贏吧,確實覺得 Google 有點橫行霸道,但好像又無可厚非。( Symantec 最近在國內大範圍推廣合作 DV 證書之餘,也準備正式推出一個免費發行 DV 證書的網站了)

於是,在深刮多家 CA 歷史及其 CPS 之後,最終決定回到 GlobalSign 的懷抱。其實因為 GlobalSign 是日本企業所以我一開始真的是很懷疑他們的技術實力,但目前看來無論是 Certificate Transparency 還是 OCSP 服務器的響應表現等,都是 CA 中做的最好的一家,市場份額也是全球第三,有一定用戶基數的同時又不會像 Comodo 那樣開始有點 “Too Big To Fail” 的感覺。最後,博客是因為想要 Wildcard 證書才買的 GlobalSign ,如果是 DV 證書的話 Let’s Encrypt 足矣。

Making life easier,Let’s Encrypt with 4096 Bits

我們都知道, Let’s Encrypt 的默認RSA密鑰長度是 2048Bits ,在創建網站證書的時候沒有修改這個配置的話,可能就是後悔終生(不)幸好,在90天的有效期過後,我們能夠輕鬆通過一行命令解決這個問題。

certbot renew --rsa-key-size 4096

Just run this bad boy, and you’re good to go.