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| 5 | <title>Technical Architecture shapes Social Structure</title> |
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| 10 | <h1>Technical Architecture shapes Social Structure:<br />an example from the real world</h1> |
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| 11 | |
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| 12 | When you use the Internet, most of your communications rely on many |
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| 13 | different computers co-operating with each other. The computers |
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| 14 | co-operate with each other because they have agreed beforehand on a |
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| 15 | <term>protocol</term>. |
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| 16 | |
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| 17 | <p>The protocols we use for communication shape not just the |
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| 18 | communications themselves, but social and economic structures beyond |
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| 19 | them. In the USA, we have seen how choices in infrastructure can |
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| 20 | shape social structure in the physical world. Our society builds |
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| 21 | highways, malls, and suburban developments while neglecting its rail |
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| 22 | lines, public spaces, and cities. In doing so, we <a |
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| 23 | href="http://www.planning.org/APAStore/Search/Default.aspx?p=3333">discourage |
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| 24 | civic interaction while facilitating pollution and dangerously |
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| 25 | sedentary lifestyles</a>. This article shows how choices in digital |
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| 26 | communications infrastructure can also have an effect on our social |
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| 27 | fabric by focusing on one small example out of many. |
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| 28 | |
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| 29 | <p>I'll discuss here a protocol in common use on the internet |
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| 30 | today: <term>Transport Layer Security</term> (<term>TLS</term>) and |
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| 31 | its precursor, the <term>Secure Sockets Layer</term> |
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| 32 | (<term>SSL</term>). These are used (among other places) in secure |
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| 33 | World Wide Web connections. <term>TLS</term>, as it is currently |
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| 34 | implemented, fosters the concentration of power and money among |
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| 35 | certain groups while hampering the public's ability to engage in |
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| 36 | trust-worthy, secure communications. |
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| 37 | |
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| 38 | <p>This is important because we still have an opportunity to choose |
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| 39 | the tools and protocols we use. By choosing our protocols, we can |
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| 40 | help move toward a social order we prefer. I'll present an existing |
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| 41 | modification to <term>TLS</term> which I think can move our online |
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| 42 | culture in a direction that is more democratically-engaged and less |
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| 43 | authoritarian. |
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| 44 | |
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| 45 | <p>TLS is only one small piece of the puzzle. There are thousands of |
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| 46 | protocols and tools in use on the Internet today, with a variety of |
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| 47 | subtle societal effects. We can choose the way we want to go, but we |
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| 48 | can choose well only if we understand the issues! |
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| 49 | |
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| 50 | <h2>Background and introduction</h2> |
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| 51 | |
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| 52 | This article has a relatively narrow technical focus, but it's one |
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| 53 | which most people reading probably encounter every week, when using |
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| 54 | the <term>World Wide Web</term> (<term>www</term>). |
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| 55 | |
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| 56 | <h3>What is HTTPS and why do we use it?</h3> |
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| 57 | |
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| 58 | Most of your everyday use of the <term>www</term> consists of <a |
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| 59 | href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2616.txt"><term>HyperText Transfer |
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| 60 | Protocol</term></a> (<term>HTTP</term>) connections. This is the |
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| 61 | <code>http://</code> you see at the beginning of many web addresses |
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| 62 | (known as <term>Uniform Resource Locator</term>s, or |
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| 63 | <term>URL</term>s). An <term>HTTP</term> session consists of your web |
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| 64 | browser sending a request to the remote web server, which is just |
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| 65 | another computer connected to the internet. Your request consists of |
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| 66 | several things, potentially including: <ul><li>the full |
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| 67 | <term>URL</term> of the page you are viewing,<li>identifying |
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| 68 | information about your web browser,<li>small pieces of data called |
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| 69 | <q>cookies</q>,<li>the contents of any form fields you might have |
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| 70 | filled in.</ul> The web server replies to your request with its own |
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| 71 | information, potentially including: <ul><li>information about the page |
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| 72 | you requested,<li>identifying information about the web server |
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| 73 | itself,<li>more <q>cookies</q>, <li>the contents of the page |
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| 74 | requested.</ul> |
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| 75 | |
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| 76 | These communications (in both directions) are all visible to any |
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| 77 | computer along the way between your computer and the web server. If |
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| 78 | you included some information that you'd rather keep private (for |
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| 79 | example, if you typed your bank account number in a field of a web |
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| 80 | form), you might be upset that the intermediate machines can all |
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| 81 | snoop! Even worse, if your password is included in this information, |
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| 82 | the snooper could then use that password to take actions that <em>only |
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| 83 | you</em> should be allowed to take, such as updating your |
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| 84 | organization's web page, transferring money, making travel |
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| 85 | reservations, etc. |
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| 86 | |
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| 87 | <p>But sometimes the <term>URL</term> accessed through your web |
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| 88 | browser begins with <code>https://</code>. This is the <q>secure</q> |
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| 89 | version of <term>HTTP</term>, and it can often be identified by the |
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| 90 | little lock icon in your browser. <captionedimage><img src="lock.png" |
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| 91 | alt="image of lock in browser"/><br/><cap>The lock in my |
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| 92 | browser</cap></captionedimage> <a |
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| 93 | href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2818.txt"><term>HTTPS</term></a> is |
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| 94 | the same protocol as <term>HTTP</term>, but wrapped inside a layer of |
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| 95 | strong encryption. This means that computers other than your own |
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| 96 | machine and the web server will see the communications as a stream of |
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| 97 | gobbledy-gook, but your web browser and the web server involved will |
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| 98 | be able to understand them. |
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| 99 | |
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| 100 | <p> This is a good thing, but some questions are still unanswered. If |
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| 101 | i'm using <ter>HTTPS</term>, I can be reasonably sure that the only |
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| 102 | parties who can decipher the communication are:<ul><li>myself <li>the |
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| 103 | web server</ul> But who is the web server really? |
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| 104 | |
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| 105 | <h3>How do we know who we're talking to?</h3> |
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| 106 | |
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| 107 | Near the little <q>lock</q>, many modern browsers will show you the |
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| 108 | name of the site you are connecting to. The first thing is to make |
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| 109 | sure that this is who you think it is. If you are about to send |
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| 110 | confidential information to your local credit union via their web page |
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| 111 | (e.g. <code>lespeoples.org</code>), you should be sure that the name |
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| 112 | near the lock is the name of your credit union. If the machine you |
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| 113 | are connecting to is something different |
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| 114 | (e.g. <code>bigbadbank.com</code>), then all the cryptography in the |
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| 115 | world won't help you keep your information private, because you are |
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| 116 | sending it to the wrong folks! |
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| 117 | |
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| 118 | <p> But if the name <em>does</em> match, there could still be |
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| 119 | problems: some nasty group could be intercepting your communications, |
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| 120 | and claiming to be the group you actually want to talk to. This isn't |
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| 121 | veering into paranoia here: the global network is very flexible; it |
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| 122 | relies on wide-scale co-operation; and the malicious actors are often |
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| 123 | tireless and conscienceless machines, not individual humans. |
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| 124 | |
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| 125 | <p> So how does your browser know to show that lock, since anyone |
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| 126 | could claim to be anyone else? <captionedimage><img src="tooltip.png" |
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| 127 | alt="image of lock in browser with tooltip showing certificate |
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| 128 | authority"/><br/><cap>browser lock showing |
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| 129 | tooltip</cap></captionedimage> Because during the initial claim of |
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| 130 | identity, the web server presents a certificate which is |
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| 131 | cryptographically signed by an <term>Certificate Authority</term> |
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| 132 | (<term>CA</term>) who your browser already knows about and trusts. On |
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| 133 | some modern web browsers, if you hover your mouse over the |
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| 134 | <q>lock</q>, a tool tip will pop up showing which <term>CA</term> |
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| 135 | signed off on the certificate presented by the web server. In the |
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| 136 | image here, you can see that the authority who signed this certificate |
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| 137 | is <q>Equifax</q>. |
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| 138 | |
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| 139 | <h3>Who do you trust?</h3> |
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| 140 | |
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| 141 | But wait a minute! Who said that <q>Equifax</q> is an authority who |
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| 142 | can verify that folks are who they say they are? As any good |
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| 143 | anarchist would ask, why should you trust this authority? At the |
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| 144 | moment, you trust them implicitly because your web browser comes |
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| 145 | pre-configured to trust them. Many modern browsers shipped with 30 or |
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| 146 | more of these <term>CA</term>s trusted <em>automatically</em>. If any |
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| 147 | one of these authorities is compromised or malicious, they could |
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| 148 | create fake certificates with whatever name they want, which means |
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| 149 | that, with only a few other small modifications, they could intercept |
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| 150 | (and tamper with) communications you intend to be private and |
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| 151 | untamperable. |
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| 152 | |
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| 153 | <p>Who are these authorities? Why are they included by default in our |
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| 154 | web browsers? Do they really do a good job in verifying identities |
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| 155 | before signing certificates? Do they have your best interests in |
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| 156 | mind? Do they share your political principles? If they received an |
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| 157 | unethical request from a corrupt governmental power or financial |
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| 158 | sponsor, would they comply, or would they resist? |
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| 159 | |
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| 160 | <p>I don't have the answers to these questions about any particular |
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| 161 | <term>CA</term>. But I think that the current technical |
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| 162 | infrastructure gives them incentives to behave in untrustworthy ways. |
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| 163 | We have very little reason to think that these <term>CA</term>s have |
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| 164 | the average web user (or server administrator) in mind when they |
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| 165 | decide policy, which makes our implicit trust in them all the more |
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| 166 | unjustified. |
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| 167 | |
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| 168 | <h2>Relevant Architecture Components</h2> |
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| 169 | |
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| 170 | What is it about the architecture of the Web that encourages this |
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| 171 | insecurity and lack of integrity? This requires a basic understanding |
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| 172 | of the underlying protocols used to create secure web connections. |
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| 173 | The Internet is a collection of co-operating machines, all passing |
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| 174 | messages to each other in various forms. Viewed from another angle, |
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| 175 | the Internet is also a collection of interacting protocols, which fit |
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| 176 | together in certain ways. |
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| 177 | |
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| 178 | <h3>TLS</h3> |
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| 179 | |
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| 180 | <term>HTTPS</term> is, at its root, <term>HTTP</term> (the common |
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| 181 | protocol by which web browsers talk to web servers) tunneled through |
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| 182 | <a href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4346.txt"><term>Transport Layer |
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| 183 | Security</term></a>, or <term>TLS</term>. <term>TLS</term> itself |
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| 184 | grew out of the <term>Secure Sockets Layer</term>, or |
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| 185 | <term>SSL</term>. <term>TLS</term> and <term>SSL</term> are generic |
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| 186 | protocols which define methods for encrypting a potentially lengthy |
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| 187 | bidirectional communications session. We call the side of the |
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| 188 | communications session that waits and listens for new connections the |
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| 189 | <term>server</term>, and the side that actively initiates connections |
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| 190 | the <term>client</term>. In the case of <term>HTTPS</term>, your web |
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| 191 | browser acts as a <term>TLS</term> <term>client</term>. |
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| 192 | |
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| 193 | <p><term>TLS</term> (like many session-based protocols) begins with a |
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| 194 | <q>handshake</q>, which is used by the <term>client</term> and |
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| 195 | <term>server</term> to establish their shared assumptions. You can |
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| 196 | think of this as two complete strangers on a phone call: they run |
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| 197 | through the languages they speak, in an attempt to find a common |
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| 198 | language in which they can communicate. |
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| 199 | |
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| 200 | <p>Assuming both <term>client</term> and <term>server</term> find that |
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| 201 | each other <q>speaks</q> some common form of <term>TLS</term>, the |
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| 202 | handshake continues with the <term>server</term> offering the client a |
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| 203 | <em>single</em> certificate asserting the <term>server</term>'s |
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| 204 | identity. |
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| 205 | |
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| 206 | <h3>X.509 v3 certificates</h3> |
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| 207 | |
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| 208 | |
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| 209 | <p>The certificate presented is a combination of a cryptographic |
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| 210 | <term>public key</term> with an identifying name of the <q>subject</q> |
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| 211 | (typically the name of the server), where the combination of these two |
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| 212 | things is signed by a <term>Certificate Authority</term> who asserts |
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| 213 | that this <term>public key</term> does in fact belong to the subject. |
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| 214 | The specific format of the certificate is specified by the |
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| 215 | <term>X.509</term> standard. |
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| 216 | |
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| 217 | <p><a href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3280.txt"><term>X.509</term></a> |
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| 218 | covers a lot of different things, but for the purposes of this |
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| 219 | discussion, we're only interested in how it specifies the certificates |
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| 220 | used in <term>TLS</term>. In particular, I want to focus on two |
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| 221 | things: how the server is identified, and how the signature is |
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| 222 | attached to the identity/public key combination. |
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| 223 | |
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| 224 | <p>The server is identified by a long string of which only the bit |
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| 225 | after the last <code>CN=</code> is really inspected by your web |
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| 226 | browser. Here's an example subject from a real-world certificate: |
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| 227 | |
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| 228 | <pre>/O=secure.mayfirst.org/OU=Domain Validated/OU=Go to https://www.thawte.com/repository/index.html/OU=Thawte SSL123 certificate/CN=secure.mayfirst.org</pre> |
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| 229 | |
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| 230 | <p>The identity of the signer (aka the <term>issuer</term>) is also |
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| 231 | present in the certificate, and a <em>single</em> signature is allowed |
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| 232 | within the certificate. |
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| 233 | |
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| 234 | <p>Your browser (or other <term>TLS</term>-capable client) takes the |
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| 235 | certificate, looks through its list of trusted <term>certificate |
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| 236 | authorities</term> for the signer. If it doesn't see the signer in |
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| 237 | that list, it treats the certificate as invalid. If the signer is |
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| 238 | present in the list of trusted <term>CA</term>s, your client uses |
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| 239 | information it already has about the signer to verify that the |
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| 240 | signature is in fact legitimate. |
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| 241 | |
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| 242 | <p>There's an extra step that can be thrown in here sometimes called |
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| 243 | <q>certificate chaining</q>, where the server presents not only its own |
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| 244 | certificate, but also the certificate of its <term>issuer</term>, |
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| 245 | where the assumption is that the <term>issuer</term>'s own certificate |
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| 246 | is signed by a <term>CA</term> that the client already trusts. |
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| 247 | |
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| 248 | <p>But however the trust is followed, we end with one conclusion: the |
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| 249 | client must already know of and trust the ultimate signer of the |
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| 250 | certificate, and there can only be one ultimate signer for any |
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| 251 | certificate. If the client doesn't know of and trust that signer, |
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| 252 | they are merely guessing that the machine on the other end of the |
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| 253 | connection is the intended machine. |
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| 254 | |
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| 255 | |
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| 256 | <h2>Concentration of Power, Financial Incentives, and Trust</h2> |
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| 257 | |
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| 258 | <p>So again, the question is: who are these <term>Certificate |
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| 259 | Authorities</term>? What is their background? Who operates them? |
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| 260 | What are their political convictions? |
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| 261 | |
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| 262 | <h3>How does a typical certificate authority stay afloat?</h3> |
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| 263 | |
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| 264 | The biggest <term>Certificate Authority</term> today at the beginning |
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| 265 | of 2007 is <a href="http://verisign.com/">VeriSign</a>. With their |
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| 266 | purchase of <a href="http://thawte.com/">Thawte</a> in 1999 and of of |
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| 267 | <a href="http://geotrust.com/">GeoTrust</a> in 2006, they are by far |
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| 268 | the largest issuer of certificates to the general public (over 70% in |
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| 269 | aggregate, according to <a |
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| 270 | href="http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2006/05/17/verisign_to_buy_geotrust_combining_top_ssl_providers.html">Netcraft</a>). |
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| 271 | |
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| 272 | <p>Verisign has a lot of other businesses, but it makes its |
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| 273 | <term>CA</term> money by selling certification to the entities |
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| 274 | requesting it. That is, if you decide to set up a new web site on a |
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| 275 | server named <code>example.com</code>, and you want to provide secured |
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| 276 | web access via <code>https://example.com/</code>, you might begin by |
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| 277 | paying VeriSign for a certificate that identifies your server as |
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| 278 | <code>example.com</code>. Why should VeriSign certify you with this |
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| 279 | name? For one thing, because you're paying them to do so. But their |
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| 280 | responsibility as a <term>CA</term> should include more rigorous |
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| 281 | checking. And they do so — but just a little bit more — |
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| 282 | often relying on the <code>example.com</code> DNS and e-mail (both |
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| 283 | forgeable systems) to be configured properly and securely. |
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| 284 | |
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| 285 | <p>At any rate, the <em>site operator</em> is the one who foots the |
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| 286 | bill for the certificate, and the <term>CA</term> has little |
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| 287 | disincentive to turn down certification, since it would presumably |
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| 288 | mean they'd lose paying customers. If the <term>CA</term> were to |
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| 289 | engage in massive, wide-scale illegitimate certification, there's a |
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| 290 | possibility that browser vendors would drop them as a trusted root |
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| 291 | <term>CA</term>, but it would probably take a really large scandal, |
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| 292 | and it would likely take months (at least) for browser vendors to |
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| 293 | actively drop trust for the <term>CA</term>. This has never been |
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| 294 | done, as far as I know. |
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| 295 | |
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| 296 | <h3>Who can be a <term>Certificate Authority</term>?</h3> |
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| 297 | |
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| 298 | The kicker in all of this is that Verisign and the other commercial |
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| 299 | <term>Certificate Authorities</term> aren't using any expensive |
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| 300 | hardware or software to issue certificates. Free tools like <a |
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| 301 | href="http://openssl.org/">OpenSSL</a> or <a |
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| 302 | href="http://www.gnu.org/software/gnutls/">GnuTLS</a> form the |
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| 303 | technical basis of most <term>CA</term>s, and there are free graphical |
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| 304 | frontends (like <a href="http://tinyca.sm-zone.net/">TinyCA</a>) which |
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| 305 | make running a <term>Certificate Authority</term> a relatively simple |
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| 306 | task. These tools can be run on bottom-of-the-barrel hardware, and |
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| 307 | being a <term>CA</term> doesn't even require a heavy-duty connection |
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| 308 | to the Internet. |
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| 309 | |
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| 310 | <p>So if anyone can technically be a <term>CA</term>, how come people |
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| 311 | aren't doing it? For one thing, doing legitimate verification of |
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| 312 | identities is actually significant work. But the verification done by |
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| 313 | most <term>CA</term>s (including VeriSign) doesn't come close to this |
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| 314 | level of work, so that shouldn't be holding people back. It turns out |
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| 315 | the architecture of <term>TLS</term> itself discourages diversity. |
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| 316 | |
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| 317 | <h3>Why does the architecture encourage concentration?</h3> |
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| 318 | |
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| 319 | Remember that a <term>TLS</term> (<term>HTTPS</term>) server can only |
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| 320 | offer a single certificate. For hassle-free, secure connections, the |
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| 321 | signer of that certificate must already be trusted by the client (web |
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| 322 | browser). As a site administrator, you need to decide who is going to |
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| 323 | sign your certificate. Most browsers out there already <q>trust</q> |
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| 324 | the big corporate <term>CA</term>s. If a new independent |
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| 325 | <term>CA</term> were to spring up, it won't be trusted by any of the |
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| 326 | browsers, which means connections using a certificate from the new |
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| 327 | <term>CA</term> would likely cause errors for your site's visitors. |
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| 328 | Since you can only choose one, you probably will go with the existing |
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| 329 | goliath, even if you feel no political affinity with them, and even if |
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| 330 | you resent paying money for their signature which could have been |
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| 331 | better used elsewhere. |
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| 332 | |
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| 333 | <p>As an individual who uses the web, your browser already |
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| 334 | <q>trusts</q> the big corporate CAs. Most of the web sites you visit |
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| 335 | are probably run by admnistrators who have made the tradeoff above. |
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| 336 | Why should you ask your browser to trust a new <term>CA</term>, even |
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| 337 | if it's one you personally actually trust more? It can be a hassle to |
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| 338 | maintain a list of trusted authorities, and it seems especially |
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| 339 | fruitless when the new authority you've added isn't actually used by |
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| 340 | any site that you visit. So why bother? And you're certainly not |
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| 341 | going to tell your browser to stop <q>trusting</q> the big corporate |
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| 342 | <term>CA</term>s, because nearly every site you visit has certificates |
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| 343 | issued by one of them. |
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| 344 | |
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| 345 | <p>What's worse, to make any change in the situation at all, there |
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| 346 | would need to be a massive break. The day that a site offers a new |
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| 347 | certificate signed by a new authority, <em>every one of its |
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| 348 | visitors</em> will see that cert, and will get errors if they don't |
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| 349 | already trust the new authority. The site administrator is pretty |
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| 350 | much guaranteed to cause problems for hir visitors by switching away |
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| 351 | from the mega-<term>CA</term>s. |
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| 352 | |
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| 353 | <p>This seems like a no-win situation, but there are ways out. |
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| 354 | |
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| 355 | <h2>Alternate Architectures</h2> |
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| 356 | |
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| 357 | The <term>TLS</term> architecture is the cause of this concentration |
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| 358 | of power, and changes to the architecture can permit or even encourage |
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| 359 | its dissolution. |
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| 360 | |
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| 361 | <h3>What could change the incentives?</h3> |
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| 362 | |
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| 363 | As usual, we need to follow the money. One of the reasons the big |
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| 364 | <term>CA</term>s have little reason to provide real security via |
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| 365 | heavy-duty verification before certification is because they lack |
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| 366 | significant competition. Making it easier to start and run a separate |
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| 367 | <term>Certificate Authority</term>, while actually encouraging its |
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| 368 | adoption would be a good thing. |
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| 369 | |
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| 370 | <p>If we were to modify the <term>TLS</term> protocol so that a server |
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| 371 | could offer multiple certificates at once, that would make it much |
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| 372 | easier to do a smooth transtion away from un-trustworthy big |
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| 373 | <term>CA</term>s, because sites and users would no longer need the |
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| 374 | massive, disruptive transition that switching certificates would |
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| 375 | entail. One year, a web site could offer certificates from Verisign |
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| 376 | and a new, politically-active <term>CA</term>, while explaining to |
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| 377 | their users the reason for switching away, and then the next year, the |
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| 378 | site could drop the VeriSign certificate entirely. |
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| 379 | |
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| 380 | <p>An analogous change would be to enable multiple signatures on a |
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| 381 | single certificate. Recall that a single <term>X.509</term> |
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| 382 | certificate contains a public key, a subject, and a signature binding |
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| 383 | the two together from a <term>CA</term>. There's no reason (in |
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| 384 | principle) that we couldn't declare a certificate as a public key, a |
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| 385 | subject, and a <em>set of signatures</em>, each from a different |
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| 386 | <term>CA</term>. It turns out that there is a proposal for this kind |
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| 387 | of alternate, multi-signature certificate (using the |
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| 388 | <term>OpenPGP</term> standard), which i'll talk about later. |
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| 389 | |
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| 390 | <p>Once it becomes easier to phase in trust of new, alternative |
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| 391 | <term>Certificate Authorities</term>, we need to think about which |
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| 392 | ones technologically-aware activists would want to support. I suggest |
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| 393 | that a full change in the funding model is needed. Instead of being |
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| 394 | paid for by the site owner, a new-model <term>Certificate |
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| 395 | Authority</term> could operate independently, funded by its members |
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| 396 | who, by joining, help shape policy about what sort of verification |
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| 397 | should be required to grant a certificate. |
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| 398 | |
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| 399 | <p>With the ability to have multiple signatures, there's nothing |
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| 400 | stopping individuals from acting as their own <term>CA</term>s as |
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| 401 | well. Do you run your own web site? Certify it! Does your |
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| 402 | organization have a web site? You and your colleagues could each |
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| 403 | certify it. This sort of decentralization is healthy, fosters |
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| 404 | community networks, and can cut out the big corporate middlemen. |
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| 405 | |
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| 406 | <h3>What else exists?</h3> |
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| 407 | |
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| 408 | <h4><term>EV</term> Certificates</h4> The big corporate middlemen don't |
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| 409 | want to be cut out, of course. A plan is afoot from some of the |
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| 410 | larger <term>CA</term>s called <a |
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| 411 | href="http://www.cabforum.org/certificates.html"><term>Extended |
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| 412 | Validation</term> (<term>EV</term>) Certificates</a>. From what I |
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| 413 | can tell, this is simply the big <term>CA</term>s offering to actually |
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| 414 | do a serious level of identity verification — what they should |
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| 415 | have been doing all along! The bills for an <term>EV</term> cert, |
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| 416 | likely even heftier than usual, will probably continue to be paid by |
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| 417 | the sites requesting the certificates. |
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| 418 | |
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| 419 | <p>This does nothing to change the financial dynamics that make the |
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| 420 | system currently so untrustworthy. But it does relegate sites who |
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| 421 | can't pay the new larger fees to a second-class level of |
|---|
| 422 | <q>security</q>, and it minimizes the number of entities considered |
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| 423 | officially capable of being an <term>EV</term>-cert-granting |
|---|
| 424 | <term>CA</term>, further consolidating the power of the few at the |
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| 425 | top. |
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| 426 | |
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| 427 | <h4>CACert.org</h4> |
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| 428 | |
|---|
| 429 | Another interesting player is <a href="http://cacert.org">CACert</a>. |
|---|
| 430 | This is a group that has set up to operate in the fashion of a typical |
|---|
| 431 | certificate authority, but has set up <a |
|---|
| 432 | href="http://wiki.cacert.org/wiki/FAQ/AssuranceIntroduction">a |
|---|
| 433 | sophisticated, clear system</a> explaining what it will take for them |
|---|
| 434 | to grant you certification, based strictly on a network of trust built |
|---|
| 435 | among their membership. This is a pretty good model, but it's a shame |
|---|
| 436 | that they're the only one implementing anything like it. There should |
|---|
| 437 | be multiple organizations with comparable models to this, so that each |
|---|
| 438 | user could make hir own decisions about who they actually trust. |
|---|
| 439 | |
|---|
| 440 | <p>Another downside to CACert is the fact that their certificates are |
|---|
| 441 | <em>still issued only by one agency</em> — the CACert |
|---|
| 442 | <term>CA</term>. Even though they explicitly say they will only grant |
|---|
| 443 | certificates according to their model, if their infrastructure is |
|---|
| 444 | somehow compromised, it's possible for an attacker (or malicious |
|---|
| 445 | employee) to issue certificates as CACert without following their |
|---|
| 446 | published protocol. |
|---|
| 447 | |
|---|
| 448 | <h3>Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater</h3> |
|---|
| 449 | |
|---|
| 450 | All of this might seem more complicated than it needs to be; it's |
|---|
| 451 | worth asking whether we need any of this at all. I want to make it |
|---|
| 452 | clear that <em>we do need secure communications</em>. As activists, |
|---|
| 453 | politically-outspoken workers, and anti-authoritarians, we need to be |
|---|
| 454 | able to communicate to each other without eavesdropping or — |
|---|
| 455 | worse — interference or impersonation. As members of a |
|---|
| 456 | capitalist society, we are also purchasers and vendors of goods and |
|---|
| 457 | services, and monetary donors and recipients. We need those |
|---|
| 458 | transactions to be handled safely, so that we don't have our financial |
|---|
| 459 | backing usurped. |
|---|
| 460 | |
|---|
| 461 | <p>More than just needing secure communications, we need secure |
|---|
| 462 | communications without faceless, unaccountable, politically-fickle, |
|---|
| 463 | mercenary gatekeepers. We need to take control of our own |
|---|
| 464 | communications by taking responsibility for them. |
|---|
| 465 | |
|---|
| 466 | <h2>Moving forward</h2> |
|---|
| 467 | |
|---|
| 468 | So where can we go from here on the specific problem of the stunted |
|---|
| 469 | <term>TLS</term> architecture? |
|---|
| 470 | |
|---|
| 471 | <h3>An alternate architecture exists!</h3> |
|---|
| 472 | |
|---|
| 473 | I mentioned earlier that there is an alternate proposal — <a |
|---|
| 474 | href="http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-tls-openpgp-keys-11.txt"><term>OpenPGP</term> |
|---|
| 475 | Certificates instead of <term>X.509</term> certificates</a> — |
|---|
| 476 | which allows multiple signatures per certificate. The proposal is |
|---|
| 477 | designed to be implementable in parallel with existing |
|---|
| 478 | <term>X.509</term> certificates. However, it is not widely |
|---|
| 479 | implemented or adopted yet. |
|---|
| 480 | |
|---|
| 481 | <p>Most programs which use <term>TLS</term> do not actually implement |
|---|
| 482 | their TLS functionality directly. Instead, they make use of software |
|---|
| 483 | <term>libraries</term>, which are collections of code that can be used |
|---|
| 484 | by many programs. |
|---|
| 485 | |
|---|
| 486 | <p>At least one library exists which can use OpenPGP certificates: the |
|---|
| 487 | free <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/gnutls/">GnuTLS library</a> |
|---|
| 488 | has supported <term>OpenPGP</term> certificates in addition to |
|---|
| 489 | <term>X.509</term> certificates since at least the end of 2003. Tools |
|---|
| 490 | (like web browsers) which use the GnuTLS library basically can get |
|---|
| 491 | this extra feature without any extra work. |
|---|
| 492 | |
|---|
| 493 | <p>However, the <a href="http://openssl.org/">OpenSSL library</a> is |
|---|
| 494 | by far the most widely-used free library, and it only includes support |
|---|
| 495 | for <term>X.509</term> certificates. Some developers <a |
|---|
| 496 | href="http://www.mail-archive.com/openssl-dev@openssl.org/msg21728.html">are |
|---|
| 497 | discussing adding OpenPGP support for OpenSSL</a>, but it's doubtful |
|---|
| 498 | that anything will happen in the near future. Tools which |
|---|
| 499 | use OpenSSL are going to take a while to migrate to this new |
|---|
| 500 | architecture. |
|---|
| 501 | |
|---|
| 502 | <p>So what needs to happen? Web browsers (and other TLS-enabled |
|---|
| 503 | clients) need to start working with the new architecture. Web servers |
|---|
| 504 | (and other TLS-enabled servers) need to start working with it as well. |
|---|
| 505 | |
|---|
| 506 | <p>One of the reasons to focus on Free Software (as covered by Amanda |
|---|
| 507 | Hickman elsewhere in this book) is that we have an opportunity to |
|---|
| 508 | contribute changes that we want to see. The big proprietary software |
|---|
| 509 | makers may not share our agendas, or may actually be antagonistic. |
|---|
| 510 | |
|---|
| 511 | <h3>Web Browser Buy-in</h3> |
|---|
| 512 | |
|---|
| 513 | <a href="http://mozilla.com/firefox/">Mozilla Firefox</a> is probably |
|---|
| 514 | the widest-distributed Free Browser today. In my version of it on my |
|---|
| 515 | <a href="http://debian.org/">debian</a> operating system, it actually |
|---|
| 516 | already uses the GnuTLS library, but I haven't reviewed the sources to |
|---|
| 517 | see how it gets used (it could be used for library features unrelated |
|---|
| 518 | to certificate verification). Furthermore, there is no clear way |
|---|
| 519 | through the Firefox graphical interface to manage OpenPGP |
|---|
| 520 | <term>CA</term>s, the way there is to manage <term>X.509</term> |
|---|
| 521 | <term>CA</term>s. So that needs work. Firefox is also the basis for |
|---|
| 522 | the proprietary Netscape browser, so any fix to Firefox could have an |
|---|
| 523 | effect there. Many other Free browsers also derive from Firefox, so a |
|---|
| 524 | fix here would be a big win. |
|---|
| 525 | |
|---|
| 526 | <p><a href="http://www.konqueror.org/">Konqueror</a> is another |
|---|
| 527 | leading Free browser with an effect on other tools (Macintosh's <a |
|---|
| 528 | href="http://www.apple.com/safari/">Safari</a> is based on Konqueror). |
|---|
| 529 | It seems to use an SSL wrapper library (<tt>kssl</tt>) to talk to |
|---|
| 530 | other libraries, but it appears to use OpenSSL exclusively at the |
|---|
| 531 | moment. A fix to <tt>kssl</tt> to allow it to talk to GnuTLS would |
|---|
| 532 | actually enable OpenPGP certificates for all the software in the <a |
|---|
| 533 | href="http://kde.org/">KDE</a> suite. |
|---|
| 534 | |
|---|
| 535 | <p>Finally, a couple of text-mode browsers, <a |
|---|
| 536 | href="http://elinks.or.cz/"><tt>elinks</tt></a> and the venerable <a |
|---|
| 537 | href="http://lynx.browser.org/"><tt>lynx</tt></a> appear to use the |
|---|
| 538 | GnuTLS library these days. |
|---|
| 539 | |
|---|
| 540 | <h3>Web Server Buy-in</h3> |
|---|
| 541 | |
|---|
| 542 | <a href="http://httpd.apache.org//"><tt>apache</tt></a> is the |
|---|
| 543 | flagship Free web server. While the standard way to make apache work |
|---|
| 544 | with <term>TLS</term> is the OpenSSL libraries via <a |
|---|
| 545 | href="http://www.modssl.org/"><tt>mod_ssl</tt></a>, a new module |
|---|
| 546 | called <a |
|---|
| 547 | href="http://www.outoforder.cc/projects/apache/mod_gnutls/"><tt>mod_gnutls</tt></a> |
|---|
| 548 | aims to make <tt>apache</tt> work with GnuTLS. However, |
|---|
| 549 | <tt>mod_gnutls</tt> is still in its infancy, and is not clear if it is |
|---|
| 550 | able to support OpenPGP keys or not. |
|---|
| 551 | |
|---|
| 552 | <p>Other web servers operate behind separate processes which handle |
|---|
| 553 | all the <term>TLS</term> wrapping. These servers should be more |
|---|
| 554 | easily switched to a library which supports <term>OpenPGP</term>. And |
|---|
| 555 | <tt>gnutls-serv</tt> appears to offer itself as a rudimentary web |
|---|
| 556 | server as well, if you needed a server to test browsers. |
|---|
| 557 | |
|---|
| 558 | <h3>Who will be the new authorities?</h3> |
|---|
| 559 | |
|---|
| 560 | If we do shift to this new architecture, who will offer these |
|---|
| 561 | new-style certificates? Initially, I imagine that VeriSign and any |
|---|
| 562 | other very big commercial <term>CA</term>s won't do it, because of the |
|---|
| 563 | threat to their business model. But smaller <term>CA</term>s might be |
|---|
| 564 | convinced to offer this service as an add-on to their existing |
|---|
| 565 | business. And now groups like <a |
|---|
| 566 | href="http://mayfirst.org/">MayFirst</a> can simply and easily sign on |
|---|
| 567 | as additional certifying agencies. |
|---|
| 568 | |
|---|
| 569 | <p><a href="http://cacert.org/">CACert.org</a> already offers OpenPGP |
|---|
| 570 | signatures, so it could probably be used immediately as an initial |
|---|
| 571 | authority. |
|---|
| 572 | |
|---|
| 573 | <p>And of course, everyone who is aware and interested in these things |
|---|
| 574 | can perform their own certifications, and publish them freely. |
|---|
| 575 | |
|---|
| 576 | <h2>Back to the larger issue</h2> |
|---|
| 577 | |
|---|
| 578 | This article goes into some technical detail on one particular corner |
|---|
| 579 | of technical infrastructure that we use regularly, and looks at ways |
|---|
| 580 | that architectural choices shape the social forces and structures |
|---|
| 581 | attached to the infrastructure. But this is just one small corner. |
|---|
| 582 | Most technological protocols we adhere to have social ramifications |
|---|
| 583 | which are worthy of consideration. The <term>Domain Name |
|---|
| 584 | System</term>, or <term>DNS</term> is another example: the US |
|---|
| 585 | government at the moment wields a heavy influence over its direction |
|---|
| 586 | because of some architectural choices, and the placement of a few key |
|---|
| 587 | servers. This has international ramifications, and has actually |
|---|
| 588 | caused some political tension recently. |
|---|
| 589 | |
|---|
| 590 | <p>The technical decisions made in the early days of e-mail (as |
|---|
| 591 | discussed in one of Jamie McClelland's articles in this book) continue |
|---|
| 592 | to shape our lives and our communication choices today, and new |
|---|
| 593 | extensions to the basic e-mail protocols will continue to have impacts |
|---|
| 594 | on how we can talk to each other. |
|---|
| 595 | |
|---|
| 596 | <p>Technical choices about how we store the music and movies that we |
|---|
| 597 | make and listen to, documents and other data, all have social |
|---|
| 598 | ramifications and are worthy of inspection and political |
|---|
| 599 | consideration. And if the consideration reveals that there is |
|---|
| 600 | technical work to be done to improve the social consequences, we need |
|---|
| 601 | to take that work on, and support others who have similar social goals |
|---|
| 602 | by adopting their work, even if it means occasional short-term |
|---|
| 603 | inconvenience or cost. |
|---|
| 604 | |
|---|
| 605 | <p>If we make these social decisions in solidarity with each other, |
|---|
| 606 | together we can build towards an egalitarian, democratic, |
|---|
| 607 | non-hierarchical culture that spans the globe. The alternative is a |
|---|
| 608 | fragmented society, where we are connected only to each other by the |
|---|
| 609 | mechanisms of financial and cultural control, subjected to the whims |
|---|
| 610 | of a small, powerful elite. So let's get to work! |
|---|
| 611 | |
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| 612 | |
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| 613 | <hr> |
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| 614 | <address></address> |
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| 615 | <!-- hhmts start -->Last modified: Fri Jan 26 17:30:56 EST 2007 <!-- hhmts end --> |
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| 616 | </body> </html> |
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