Root Causes: A PKI and Security Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Root Causes 117: Why Default Deny Matters to the CA/Browser Forum Sep 04, 2020

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This year the CA/Browser Forum has put considerable discussion into the concept of "default deny." It's a philosophy for how to interpret potential ambiguities in existing guidelines for public certificates, and how you land on the default-deny question can have a significant impact on how you interpret the rules. Join our hosts as they describe this debate and its potential impact on public certificates.

Root Causes 116: Ripple20 Exposes TCP/IP Vulnerabilities for IoT Aug 30, 2020

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Ripple20 is a recently announced set of documented vulnerabilities in the early Treck TCP/IP stack, a popular choice for early IoT devices. Our hosts are joined by guest Alan Grau, who explains the significance of these vulnerabilities, the difficulties in dealing with them, and how we can improve to avoid these problems in the future.

Root Causes 115: Signed HTTP Exchange (SXG) Certificates Aug 27, 2020

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Accelerated Mobile Pages, or AMP, is a Google standard for packaging web content for consistent and usable display on mobile devices. SXG certificates enable the display of the original publisher's authenticated URL in the mobile reader. Join us as we explain the potential benefits of SXG to readers and content publishers.

Root Causes 114: Is Quantum Computing a Threat to SHA-2? Aug 21, 2020

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Quantum computers' threat to standardized encryption algorithms RSA and ECC has been much discussed. But what about our hashing algorithms? Do quantum computers pose a similar threat to SHA-2? Join our hosts as they discuss the difference between Shor's Algorithms and Grover's Algorithm, which applies to each part of cryptography, and how significant quantum computing will be for each.

Root Causes 113: What Is Certificate Pinning? Aug 18, 2020

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Certificate pinning is the practice of coding software to demand the presence of a specific certificate brand or root in order to function correctly. Though once considered a legitimate security option, certificate pinning is widely discredited because it carries unacceptable certificate agility costs. Join our hosts as they explain what certificate pinning is, how it came about, and why nearly all developers should avoid certificate pinning today.

Root Causes 112: Introducing Sectigo Quantum Labs Aug 13, 2020

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For more than a year Sectigo has been providing the market with information to understand what we all must do to change our cryptography to prepare for quantum computers. Now Sectigo has announced Sectigo Quantum Labs, a destination for education on quantum-safe certificates (QSC) and our Quantum-Safe Kit, which allows enterprises to create their own hybrid quantum-safe certs. Join us as we articulate what Sectigo Quantum Labs has to offer you.

Root Causes 111: Secure Data Interconnects Aug 10, 2020

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Distributed data centers are extremely common in today's computing environments. Unencrypted replication of data across these centers leaves data open to theft. Nonetheless, existing systems and software leave that possibility open, and sometimes data replication occurs in the clear. Our hosts explain how this situation can come about and what to do about it.

Root Causes 110: Single-domain, Multi-domain, and Wildcard SSL Certificates Aug 06, 2020

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When you obtain an SSL certificate, you can choose between single-domain, multi-domain, and wildcard certificates. Join our hosts as they explain the different domain spaces available with TLS certificates and the pros and cons of each approach.

Root Causes 109: Examining MFA Through Phone-based SMS Jul 29, 2020

Show notes

SMS-based one time password (OTP) is a very commonly used form of multi-factor authentication (MFA). That's because it's fast and inexpensive to roll out to users. Unfortunately it is deeply vulnerable to a set of well-defined attacks. In this episode our hosts explain why SMS MFA became so popular and how this outdated MFA scheme fails to provide the security expected by those who use it.

Root Causes 108: Why Do Certificates Expire? Jul 24, 2020

Show notes

Root expirations occasionally make headlines by breaking systems, but it's a fact that certificates are expiring every day, each a potential outage waiting to happen. So why do certificates expire in the first place? Join our hosts as they discuss the reasons for expiration, its advantages over other mechanisms like revocation, and the right amount of time for a certificate to last.

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