[HN Gopher] Information on the revocation of WinRAR 5.91 digital...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Information on the revocation of WinRAR 5.91 digital certificate
        
       Author : Bastich
       Score  : 127 points
       Date   : 2020-08-26 16:15 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.rarlab.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.rarlab.com)
        
       | Jerry2 wrote:
       | Anyone know which CA did this? I'd like to add it to my list of
       | 'entities to avoid doing business with'.
        
         | gruez wrote:
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24284425
        
       | gruez wrote:
       | The CA in question is CN = Sectigo RSA Code Signing CA
        
         | tgsovlerkhgsel wrote:
         | This is the most important information in this. Other people
         | who are looking for code signing certificates should use this
         | information to choose their CA.
         | 
         | From the view of the certificate holder, the CA has one job:
         | Keep their certificate valid. Everything else (including the
         | trustworthiness of the CA, e.g. whether they issue false
         | certificates) only matters insofar as it affects that job (if
         | the CA were to screw up up badly enough to get removed from
         | certificate stores, the certificate also becomes invalid, but
         | other than that, the certificate holder doesn't really care how
         | the CA acts).
         | 
         | By relying on a CA known to take such action (whether justified
         | or unjustified), you're putting the continued usability of your
         | software at risk, i.e. there is a strong reason to pick any
         | other trusted CA.
        
         | garaetjjte wrote:
         | ...previously known as Comodo. Did their reputation was so bad
         | that they had to rebrand?
         | 
         | https://sectigo.com/resource-library/comodo-ca-is-now-sectig...
        
           | sedatk wrote:
           | Yes they've been pretty much terrible. https://www.techdirt.c
           | om/articles/20160623/17483934805/super...
        
       | breakfastduck wrote:
       | I know the authorities need to err on the side of caution, but
       | it's quite astonishing to me that someone at the authority didn't
       | just say 'It's WinRAR...' and let it slide.
       | 
       | It's got to be one of the most well known tools in the entire
       | windows ecosystem.
        
         | LorenPechtel wrote:
         | If it were just the file not being clean on Virustotal I would
         | fully agree. Heuristic detection will result in false
         | positives. However, if they had an actual example of malware
         | signed by that key that would indicate a compromise and that
         | would justify pulling it. The absence of the offending file is
         | suspicious, though.
        
           | luckylion wrote:
           | If they had an example, they would've never deleted it
           | though. I mean, that part is so unprofessional, it's rude to
           | believe are that incompetent, the polite explanation is that
           | they lied about it.
        
           | breakfastduck wrote:
           | Yep, it would certainly justify pulling it, but quite bizarre
           | that they're then refusing to issue another certification -
           | I'm sure the WinRAR team would be able to prove they're the
           | genuine developers.
        
         | wnevets wrote:
         | This CA sounds kinda incompetent. Even if you ignore the fact
         | who winrar is, just the nature of the tool itself makes its
         | silly to use virustotal as the gatekeeper.
        
       | monoideism wrote:
       | They should really name the CA. It's quite common for 1 of the 60
       | tests on virustotal.com to turn up a false positive.
        
         | sedatk wrote:
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24284425
        
       | Santosh83 wrote:
       | It is particularly ironic that so many people in this thread are
       | recommending 7-zip in response to a cert problem with WinRAR when
       | 7-zip has no code signing at all and presents the scary yellow
       | "unknown software" screen when you try to install it.
        
         | Arnavion wrote:
         | The scary yellow screen that everyone clicks through anyway. I
         | don't think 7zip needs to worry about that harming its
         | adoption.
         | 
         | Codesigning is a protection racket, and FOSS should not feel
         | pressured to participate in it.
        
         | dependenttypes wrote:
         | People are not recommending 7-zip in response to the cert
         | problem but rather to someone directly asking for a superior
         | alternative in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24284253
         | 
         | Regardless, 7zip does not have as much of a need for a
         | certificate because it is foss so you do not need to trust the
         | creators, in comparison to winrar which isn't and you need to
         | trust them.
        
           | rgj wrote:
           | The fact that it is FOSS makes it _easier_ for someone to
           | compile it with a backdoor or trojan. I would say the need
           | for a certificate is _higher_ there. You don't need to trust
           | the developers, you need to be able to trust the people who
           | have built the executable.
        
         | GuB-42 wrote:
         | I didn't even realize that the "scary" yellow prompt was
         | related to code signing. For me it was just what happens when
         | you run an executable from the internet.
         | 
         | Do anyone pays attention to this? There is a lot of legitimate
         | software you can't install without clicking through. 7-zip is
         | just one of them.
        
         | yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
         | It's a bit like the way that plaintext HTTP is way easier to
         | deal with than HTTPS, and the way browsers treat a self-signed
         | cert as worse than no cert. Which... does lead to some _odd_
         | outcomes, yes.
        
       | xacky wrote:
       | With both Windows and MacOS both putting scary warnings and hard
       | to bypass blocking methods on improperly signed software this
       | could eventually lead to developers being ransomed, "pay us big
       | money or we will revoke your certificate". This is not the only
       | incident like this.
        
         | renewiltord wrote:
         | A non-problem. Linux will run on x86 hardware till the end of
         | time.
        
           | kube-system wrote:
           | Professional developers have to write code that runs on their
           | customers' systems.
        
             | renewiltord wrote:
             | The customers have a VM for this that will be likely
             | delivered indefinitely for this purpose: Webkit + friends.
        
         | t0mas88 wrote:
         | That would also be possible for a successful website or app
         | using pinning. So far there are no public reports of it
         | happening.
         | 
         | Would probably also put the CA out of business in no time if
         | they did.
        
           | joshspankit wrote:
           | _For now_.
           | 
           | It's very easy to see two steps ahead on this
        
         | gruez wrote:
         | >this could eventually lead to developers being ransomed, "pay
         | us big money or we will revoke your certificate"
         | 
         | by whom? the platform makers (apple/microsoft) or malicious
         | third parties?
        
           | phreack wrote:
           | Apple is effectively doing this to Epic and others, but it
           | could be done by any agreement of enough CA's as well.
        
             | EricE wrote:
             | Epic violated the agreements they signed with Apple.
             | 
             | Whether or not we care for the contents of the agreements
             | is a separate issue. Apple did not capriciously act against
             | Epic - if they had then Epic wouldn't have had an
             | advertising campaign and lawsuit ready to go within hours.
             | 
             | The situation with WinRAR is completely different and it
             | doesn't help anything in trying to conflate the two; indeed
             | it just muddies the waters :(
        
               | joshspankit wrote:
               | I'd argue that it's more similar than it seems, but with
               | one caveat: Apple (rightfully) became the market leader,
               | but is essentially running what should be a public
               | market.
               | 
               | If one company took over all the physical land on the
               | planet, and had everyone sign agreements to essentially
               | pay taxes to them with every transaction, would we still
               | argue that that's not only legal, but morally justified?
        
           | izacus wrote:
           | Both. We've seen third parties do this on Windows and Apple
           | themselves use this to punish developers who dared criticize
           | them.
        
             | Karunamon wrote:
             | Where and when did Microsoft or Apple yank someone's
             | developer cert for the sole reason of criticism? An
             | accusation that serious needs to be substantiated.
        
       | cosmotic wrote:
       | The winrar trial has ads in it that try to load activex controls
       | using embedded IE webview; an obvious security concern. I
       | reported it and they suggested I enable activex.
        
       | _jal wrote:
       | Who was the CA with whom they had this difference of opinion?
        
         | sedatk wrote:
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24284425
        
       | batch12 wrote:
       | Weird. Though there would be value in working with the vendors
       | backing VT to get this fixed as this is just one of the issues
       | with a false positive. Another is that users who use these
       | products are probably alerted or otherwise prevented from using
       | WinRAR too.
       | 
       | VT has it as malicious with the new hash too [1] .
       | 
       | Antiy-AVL calls it Win32.Shelma. Only good definition that seems
       | to match that detection is from Kaspersky [2] stating that the 64
       | bit version is detected as using metasploit [3] components.
       | 
       | [1]
       | https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/21dd688a5371f5b0d297a307...
       | 
       | [2] https://threats.kaspersky.com/en/threat/Trojan.Win64.Shelma/
       | 
       | [3] https://www.metasploit.com/
       | 
       | edited: formatting
        
       | cm2187 wrote:
       | I would have incremented the version number so the likes of
       | Chocolatey would pick it up and replace the version installed
       | with a revoked certificate as part of a regular update.
        
         | toast0 wrote:
         | I agree; the .exe is different (because the
         | signature/certificate is embedded), so it should be a different
         | version number.
        
       | black3r wrote:
       | Do people still use WinRar? :O
        
         | Arnavion wrote:
         | Yes. People who don't know any better alternatives continue to
         | use it, and continue to recommend it to other people. So the
         | cycle continues.
         | 
         | Heck, WinZip still makes new releases so I'm sure people still
         | use that too.
        
           | AlexandrB wrote:
           | > People who don't know any better alternatives continue to
           | use it
           | 
           | Genuine question: what are the better alternatives?
        
             | saxonww wrote:
             | For zip files in particular, you can just right click and
             | 'Extract all' in modern versions of Windows. I believe you
             | can also double-click to open them like folders in
             | Explorer.
             | 
             | 7-Zip covers the majority of other formats you're likely to
             | encounter.
        
             | geogra4 wrote:
             | 7zip
        
               | Semaphor wrote:
               | I haven't used WinRAR in ages, but what makes 7zip (which
               | I use as well) better?
        
               | olvy0 wrote:
               | It can extract files to paths of more than 260
               | characters, without any extra tools or registry hacks, on
               | any version of windows (even xp). Winrar cannot. As a
               | bonus, 7zip can also delete folders with file paths that
               | are over 260 characters from its file manager ui. It has
               | been one of the only programs to be able to do so for
               | many years.
        
               | Seanambers wrote:
               | Amount of times this has been an issue with using Winrar
               | for 15+ years : zero.
               | 
               | I'm amazed at all the comments calling for 7zip as the
               | one and only. winrar works just fine so does windows zip
               | function. If you have an edge case, yeah then you need
               | something that can handle it.
        
               | olyjohn wrote:
               | WinRAR works fine. But it's $29. 7zip works fine and is
               | not $29.
        
               | greatgib wrote:
               | 7zip is completely free and OpenSource, and more modern.
               | 
               | I think that they also support more archive formats and
               | they even have their own open format 7z.
               | 
               | Based on their own claims, there are also faster and more
               | efficient than Winrar.
        
             | breakfastduck wrote:
             | Yep, +1 for 7zip
        
             | PrimeDirective wrote:
             | 7zip (the archive manager, not the compression format), at
             | least for Windows
        
             | pbalau wrote:
             | TotalCommander.
        
             | theandrewbailey wrote:
             | Peazip: https://peazip.github.io/
             | 
             | I used to use 7zip, but switched when I discovered that
             | Peazip doesn't extract to a temporary directory when
             | extracting (thus, saving extra I/O work). It directly
             | extracts into the target directory.
        
               | jasperry wrote:
               | In response to WayToDoor, some archives contain thousands
               | of files, and it's essentially doubling the number of
               | filesystem operations by putting them in a temp directory
               | and then moving. If the temp directory is on a different
               | drive from the destination, then it's recopying all the
               | data.
               | 
               | I thought the creation of the files in the temp directory
               | was an unavoidable artifact of how drag-and-drop worked
               | in Windows. If peazip can get around this, I might check
               | it out.
        
               | ta89764894 wrote:
               | Avoiding a temp directories is usually a good thing,
               | unless the temp directory allows you to avoid operations
               | on removable drives. I've noticed on windows with drives
               | marked as "removable" it's almost always faster to copy
               | an archive to the harddrive (non-removable drive) extract
               | it and copy the contents back. I'm assuming this is
               | because of the different or lack of caching available for
               | removable drives. Random read/write is typically a lot
               | slower that sequential read/write so an ideal solution
               | would take into account the relative performance of
               | different drives before with making or not making a temp
               | folder.
        
               | WayToDoor wrote:
               | Is a file move that big of an IO operation?
        
               | sumtechguy wrote:
               | depends on the move operation. 1 file you would not
               | notice it. Thousands it would add up. Across 2 physical
               | drives you may also notice it if the file is big enough.
        
               | vore wrote:
               | I run into the issue sometimes cross-volume, where the
               | file gets extracted into a temporary directory then has
               | to be copied to the actual destination, into e.g. a
               | network volume or second hard disk.
        
               | theandrewbailey wrote:
               | Back when I used Winzip/7zip, they didn't move files:
               | they copied files. When you're working with files
               | measured in gigabytes, the speedup is quite noticeable.
        
               | iMerNibor wrote:
               | If it's moving it to a different drive/partition it'll
               | have to copy it again
               | 
               | Moving many (small) files can also be quite slow
        
           | mrweasel wrote:
           | Or maybe their customers just like the product, as in the GUI
           | and feature and don't care that another compression algorithm
           | can shave off a few extra megabytes.
           | 
           | If I recall correctly WinRAR can make self extracting
           | archives pretty easily. If you use that feature it might be
           | easier/better to just continue using WinRAR.
           | 
           | I love the fact that small software companies like RARLAB can
           | still exist.
        
             | breakfastduck wrote:
             | It would be incredibly sad to see them go out of business,
             | it's such an iconic piece of software.
        
               | yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
               | > It would be incredibly sad to see them go out of
               | business, it's such an iconic piece of software.
               | 
               | Granted, it's also famous for (supposedly) nobody ever
               | paying for it, which doesn't exactly lend itself to
               | staying in business.
        
               | breakfastduck wrote:
               | That's true, but considering how widespread the software
               | is, it's likely that they only need a tiny percentage of
               | the overall user-base to pay to remain a sustainable
               | business.
               | 
               | They could at any point have changed the software to
               | prevent it from functioning after the trial has expired -
               | they're not going to be so naive to think people will all
               | pay just because of a prompt that can be easily
               | dismissed.
        
             | garaetjjte wrote:
             | I wonder how profitable they are. In Poland WinRAR was big
             | at the time (still sort of is, but 7-zip taken over a lot
             | of users), but buying license was actually point of jokes
             | and memes. Everybody just used shareware trial and closed
             | that nag window every time.
        
             | olyjohn wrote:
             | We paid for an enterprise license for like 5000 computers.
             | Why the fuck we did that, nobody seems to know.
        
             | Arnavion wrote:
             | > Or maybe their customers just like the product, as in the
             | GUI and feature and don't care that another compression
             | algorithm can shave off a few extra megabytes.
             | 
             | First of all, I very much doubt that the people who use
             | winrar even notice the UI. They could switch to 7zip and
             | feel right at home. People are used to UI changing
             | drastically all the time, both from Windows itself, and
             | from websites. Some of them complain about it, but even
             | they adjust.
             | 
             | Second, I said nothing about "another compression
             | algorithm". All the big compression software on Windows
             | support each other's algorithms, but 7zip is free and
             | winrar makes you pay for it. Also the people who use winrar
             | don't care about compression algorithms in the first place,
             | only that they get a file they can email and the other
             | people can double-click to extract.
             | 
             | Third, the reality of the situation is that most people who
             | use winrar are also the kind that use the trial version
             | indefinitely. The more clued ones switch to pirated copies
             | from piratebay et al. I'd rather people use 7zip than
             | pirated copies, both for their safety _and_ for RARLAB 's
             | benefit.
             | 
             | The reason these companies charge for things that are free
             | is because they rely on users not knowing better, and the
             | small fraction of users who do pay for it is sufficient to
             | bankroll them. A 7zip user and a winrar user could be
             | friends for life and the topic of "So what compression
             | software do you use?" might never come up.
             | 
             | >If I recall correctly WinRAR can make self extracting
             | archives pretty easily.
             | 
             | So can 7zip.
             | 
             | >I love the fact that small software companies like RARLAB
             | can still exist.
             | 
             | You say this as if the alternatives are all big software
             | companies. Last I checked, 7zip is still a one-person
             | software.
        
             | theandrewbailey wrote:
             | WinRAR seems to have added additional compression formats
             | and algorithms, like 7zip and XZ:
             | https://www.rarlab.com/otherfmt.htm
             | 
             | WinZIP, too: https://www.winzip.com/win/en/lanall.html
        
           | wheybags wrote:
           | I have found that some multipart rar files fail to extract
           | properly with 7zip. Most are fine though, but I normally have
           | the unrar-nonfree package installed for the few that don't
           | work.
        
             | XzetaU8 wrote:
             | Had a similar issue with some rar files but the latest
             | v20.02 seems to have solved it and everything work fine so
             | far, also if you want try to report this issue on their
             | forum.
             | 
             | https://sourceforge.net/p/sevenzip/discussion/45797/thread/
             | 9...
        
           | vbezhenar wrote:
           | What is better alternative? 7-zip UI is not as good and
           | missing some WinRAR features.
        
           | MikusR wrote:
           | There are alternatives with built in recovery records? Which
           | ones? I am being serious.
        
             | mmebane wrote:
             | That's the single remaining killer feature of RAR for me. I
             | think the last time I actually used it was years ago when
             | pulling a backup off of a degraded DVD-R, but it still
             | provides a bit of peace of mind for long-term storage.
        
           | tclancy wrote:
           | Hang on, should I be moving off of pkzip?
        
           | hinkley wrote:
           | Somehow archival tools have become political. 7zip seems to
           | be the new one people use even though that means their users
           | now have to download and understand two packages instead of
           | one. It's off-putting, especially when downloading your tool
           | was already an act of yak shaving. As awesome as we want to
           | think our tools are, the people who use them may be
           | preoccupied with other problems instead. Friction will not
           | convert them.
           | 
           | I think I shamed someone out of using 7z recently by pointing
           | out that if they claim to be trying to attract a broad
           | audience of hobbyist developers, using a compression library
           | that doesn't exist on OS X (with out without Xcode) is not a
           | smart plan. In this particular case you had to download two
           | tools to use their code, and that just tore it for me.
           | 
           | When I went back recently they had switched to .xz, which
           | does exist.
        
           | edgarvaldes wrote:
           | I have used both and prefer the WinRar GUI and the better
           | multi part support.
        
         | Stevvo wrote:
         | WinRAR does everything you ask of it; compress or decompress
         | archives in one click. Why wouldn't people still use it?
        
           | spoopyskelly wrote:
           | Because every operating system has built in zip compression
           | support.
        
             | parliament32 wrote:
             | WinRAR is for RAR files, as the name suggests.
        
             | Karunamon wrote:
             | zip is hardly the only compression algorithm, or the best
             | one for all conceivable use cases, and tools like Winrar
             | (and 7zip, for that matter) offer additional features that
             | the OS tools do not.
        
         | inetsee wrote:
         | Ebooks available on IRC are often compressed as RAR files. More
         | often lately Epub books are not being compressed since Epub
         | files are already compressed, and compressing them again as RAR
         | files doesn't really gain you anything.
        
         | pletnes wrote:
         | I ask the same. It also has bugs where a zip/unzip roundtrip
         | yields a different file. Not good.
        
         | jug wrote:
         | I do use 7-zip myself, but WinRAR has still a more feature rich
         | user interface out of the box than 7-zip and while 7-zip has
         | better compression in general, compression isn't everything
         | when they're this close to each other, like a few percents
         | different ratio.
        
       | ikeboy wrote:
       | Not a lawyer but I suspect there's a viable tortious interference
       | claim. Revocation is effectively telling your customers that your
       | product is unsafe, if done without cause it could be actionable.
        
         | gruez wrote:
         | >Revocation is effectively telling your customers that your
         | product is unsafe
         | 
         | ...or that the certificate was no longer in compliance with
         | their Certificate Practice Statement. It looks like their CPS
         | gives them a great deal of leeway here.
         | https://sectigo.com/uploads/files/Sectigo-CPS-v5.2.pdf#page=...
        
           | ikeboy wrote:
           | The main clauses either require a reasonable belief, which is
           | a factual question that could easily go against the CA, or
           | says they need to be "identified" as publishers of malicious
           | software, without specifying how. An antivirus site that has
           | many false positives likely wouldn't qualify.
        
       | pimterry wrote:
       | > We think that revoking certificates based on questionable data
       | discredits the certification system.
       | 
       | It's hard to dispute this imo. There are many good reasons
       | certificates should be revoked, but the reasoning should be 100%
       | public information, for both the vendor and users who may have
       | trusted the original certificate.
       | 
       | I'm building a desktop app, and the process to even get a
       | certificate is absurd. Each CA has their own wildly different
       | processes, and seemingly answers to nobody. I changed cert
       | providers recently after Digicert suddenly raised their prices
       | 400% on a whim, and it took a huge number of changing
       | requirements, phone calls, 3rd parties, and over a month to
       | receive the new one, despite already having an existing verified
       | & still-valid signing certificate with all those details from an
       | equally legitimate provider.
       | 
       | I'd kill to see a modern service a la Let's Encrypt but for code
       | signing. Something transparent, reliable, fast & trusted cross-
       | platform (I can dream). Verifying identity is a hard problem, but
       | it's really not _that_ hard a problem - there's plenty of fintech
       | services that can reliably do sufficient KYC for banking in 5
       | minutes with a few id details and video call.
        
         | asdfasgasdgasdg wrote:
         | There's another aspect of this situation that also discredits
         | the system: that they can just go out and get a different cert
         | from another vendor. How many such vendors are there? How long
         | would it take for an actual bad actor to have all their certs
         | discovered and revoked? If that time is long, then the
         | certification process is of even more dubious value, since the
         | bad guys would not be materially hindered by the certification
         | requirement.
        
           | tgsovlerkhgsel wrote:
           | The job of a certificate authority is to verify an identity,
           | not to vet that the holder is using the certificate only for
           | good.
           | 
           | As long as the CAs do that job (which is a separate issue),
           | it's fine if John Doe can get 50 different CAs to certify
           | that he is, indeed, John Doe.
        
             | asdfasgasdgasdg wrote:
             | Plainly whoever is issuing the cert we're discussing sees
             | their role as much broader. Presumably the OS manufacturer
             | also sees it that way.
        
           | gruez wrote:
           | "Security-in-depth":
           | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24193087
        
             | asdfasgasdgasdg wrote:
             | On some level I get it but aren't cash cards a thing? What
             | actual level of identity and KYC do these cert companies
             | do? How easy is it for someone without scruples to get
             | another cert without revealing their identity? (Genuine
             | questions: I do not personally know.)
        
               | deburr wrote:
               | Cash cards can be distinguished against at the merchant
               | level by most payment providers (and often are to prevent
               | delayed charge fraud).
        
         | AnthonyMouse wrote:
         | The other consideration is that verifying identity is
         | _pointless_ , because malware authors don't actually use their
         | own identities, they just pull a code signing certificate from
         | the 1% of their already-infected users who have one. Then they
         | go out and infect a million more users with it and get 10,000
         | more code signing certificates.
         | 
         | If all you're after is some kind of rate limiting then forget
         | about identity verification and just require proof of a unique
         | $500 donation to a 501(c)(3). Not only would it be easier to
         | automate, it would do some good in the world, and people would
         | be a lot happier to see their resources go there than to some
         | box checking bureaucrats.
        
           | DaiPlusPlus wrote:
           | This is why code-signing certificates must be two-factor
           | (e.g. embedded on a PIN secured smartcard where the private-
           | key is protected from extraction by _anybody_ ).
           | 
           | My Tucows certificate is still a single *.pfx file - whereas
           | my arguably less-consequential AATL (Adobe PDF signing)
           | certificate is stuck on a crappy USB device that requires me
           | to install marketing-laden software for. I miss my old
           | commodity smartcard-based certificates.
        
           | gnu8 wrote:
           | That doesn't rate limit wealthy attackers, it just locks
           | regular individuals out of the system. Peter Thiel could
           | still buy 10,000 malicious certificates at $500/ea, while I
           | wouldn't even be able to buy one for a simple project.
        
         | MadVikingGod wrote:
         | Let's Encrypt's argument for why all the fancy features that
         | CA's offered boiled down to "These are more complicated ways of
         | proving that you own a domain". So by automating the
         | verification of ownership of a domain you could essentially run
         | a CA for pennies per certificate, and give them out for free.
         | 
         | Looking at application development I think a similar thing
         | could be done, but what would we pin identity to? I don't know
         | if there is one thing that every app has like a website.
        
           | DaiPlusPlus wrote:
           | Registered company information and/or notarised identity
           | cards.
        
           | benlivengood wrote:
           | > Looking at application development I think a similar thing
           | could be done, but what would we pin identity to?
           | 
           | How about domain name?
           | 
           | Whenever I install (Windows) software I rarely care about the
           | mailing address or D.B.A. name; I look at the website address
           | listed.
        
         | batch12 wrote:
         | I agree that it would be nice to have a letsencrypt for code.
         | The biggest hurdle I see is getting the the root trusted by OS
         | vendors. While not impossible (the browser vendors did it),
         | trust on these platforms may be a bigger issue since the code
         | runs natively.
        
       | akersten wrote:
       | > another explanation, i.e. that one reason for the revocation is
       | some mysterious 570 MB executable file, which had been signed
       | with our certificate but looked like a file used by hackers.
       | 
       | Woah, talk about burying the lede? This sentence makes it sound
       | like their private key was compromised, in which case it makes
       | total sense to revoke the cert. Unless I'm misunderstanding what
       | they're trying to say here.
        
         | skymt wrote:
         | You are misunderstanding. WinRAR's implication is that the CA
         | is lying about the 570 MB file because they didn't mention it
         | until WinRAR challenged them on the VirusTotal justification
         | for revocation, and because they were unable to provide the
         | file in question or any evidence that it exists.
        
           | londons_explore wrote:
           | Why not at least link to the virustotal listing for said
           | file? Perhaps someone else has it from the hash?
           | 
           | I doubt the CA would lie about the existence of such a file,
           | although perhaps they are mistaken about the signature (it
           | could be a case of a 570 MB file concatenated with a
           | legitimately signed winrar executable - signatures don't
           | always cover all parts of the file)
        
             | ivank wrote:
             | > Why not at least link to the virustotal listing for said
             | file?
             | 
             | I don't think virustotal accepts files larger than 500 MB.
        
             | tgsovlerkhgsel wrote:
             | It seems unlikely it's on VT:
             | 
             | 1. VT has an upload limit of 128 MB. (Maybe the private API
             | allows more, not sure.)
             | 
             | 2. VT allows sample download if you have a VT Intelligence
             | account - so if this was a file shared with VT, the CA
             | should be able to provide the file.
        
           | gruez wrote:
           | [deleted]
        
             | skymt wrote:
             | The WinRAR post doesn't say that the file was submitted to
             | VirusTotal, only that the CA said it "looked like a file
             | used by hackers". Either there was no VirusTotal record for
             | it or there was and WinRAR omitted that fact because it
             | weakened their argument.
        
               | qtplatypus wrote:
               | Also this file (if it existed) was used to justify a
               | business critical decision. Why wasn't there a paper
               | trail for this file. Why wasn't this data archived?
        
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