Recently, this interesting tidbit crossed my Twitter feed: Sure enough, if you visited the site in Chrome, you’d get a baffling prompt. My hometown newspaper shows the same thing: Weird, huh? Client certificates are a way for a browser to supply a certificate to the server to verify the client’s identity (in the typical case,Continue reading “Client Certificates on Android”
Tag Archives: https
HTTPS Only Works If You Use It – Tipster Edition
It’s recently become fashionable for news organizations to build “anonymous tip” sites that permit members of the public to confidentially submit tips about stories of public interest. Unfortunately, would-be tipsters need to take great care when exploring such options, because many organizations aren’t using HTTPS properly to ensure that the user’s traffic to the newsContinue reading “HTTPS Only Works If You Use It – Tipster Edition”
Security UI in Chrome
The combined address box and search bar at the top of the Chrome window is called the omnibox. The icon and optional verbose state text adjacent to that icon are collectively known as the Security Chip: The security chip can render in a number of states, depending on the status of the page: Secure –Continue reading “Security UI in Chrome”
2016 Brotli Update
Windows 10 Build 14986 adds support for Brotli compression to the Edge browser (but, somewhat surprisingly, not IE11). So at the end of 2016, we now have support for this improved compression algorithm in Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Opera, Brave, Vivaldi, and the long tail of browsers based on Chromium. Of modern browsers, only Apple isContinue reading “2016 Brotli Update”
Email Tracking Links are the Worst
Use HTTPS for all inbound links, especially those sent in email.
Using Fiddler With iOS 10 and Android 7
If you’ve tried to use Fiddler with iOS10 beta or Android 7 Nougat, you have probably found that HTTPS decryption isn’t working, even if you use the latest Fiddler and the Fiddler Certificate Maker add-on. Unfortunately, at the moment both platforms are broken, but for different reasons. In both cases, the client will fail toContinue reading “Using Fiddler With iOS 10 and Android 7”
TLS Fallbacks are Dead
Just over 5 years ago, I wrote a blog post titled “Misbehaving HTTPS Servers Impair TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.2.” In that post, I noted that enabling versions 1.1 and 1.2 of the TLS protocol in IE would cause some sites to load more slowly, or fail to load at all. Sites that failed toContinue reading “TLS Fallbacks are Dead”
Non-Secure Clicktrackers–The Fastest Path from A+ to F
HTTPS only works if you use it. Coinbase is an online bitcoin exchange backed by $106M in venture capital investment. They’ve got a strong HTTPS security posture, including the latest ciphers, a 4096bit RSA key, and advanced features like browser-preloaded HSTS and HPKP. SSLLabs grades Coinbase’s HTTPS deployment an A+: This is a well-secured siteContinue reading “Non-Secure Clicktrackers–The Fastest Path from A+ to F”
Bolstering HTTPS Security
Last Update: 26 October 2023 When #MovingToHTTPS, the first step is to obtain the necessary certificates for your domains and enable HTTPS on your webserver. After your site is fully HTTPS, there are some other configuration changes you should consider to further enhance the site’s security. Validate Basic Configuration First, use SSLLab’s Server Test toContinue reading “Bolstering HTTPS Security”
Building the moarTLS Analyzer
I’m passionate about building tools that help developers and testers discover, analyze, and fix problems with their sites. Some of the first code I ever released was a set of trivial JavaScript-based browser extensions for IE5. I later used the more powerful COM-based extensibility model to hack together some add-ons that would log ActiveX controlsContinue reading “Building the moarTLS Analyzer”
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