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Ask HN: Why SSL certs are not decentralized?

19 pointsby devneelpatelover 1 year ago
Maybe a noob question: Why SSL/TLS certs are not decentralized? Is it not possible to set public key in DNS TXT record and have private key on the server. Would that not solve encryption? Why do we need SSL / TLS certs from a CA like LetsEncrypt?

9 comments

stephenrover 1 year ago
What you&#x27;re talking about exists: it&#x27;s called DANE: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;DNS-based_Authentication_of_Named_Entities" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;DNS-based_Authentication_of_...</a>
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cpachover 1 year ago
It’s not a trivial problem to solve.<p>See Zooko’s triangle: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Zooko%27s_triangle" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Zooko%27s_triangle</a> and <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;web.archive.org&#x2F;web&#x2F;20011020191610&#x2F;http:&#x2F;&#x2F;zooko.com&#x2F;distnames.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;web.archive.org&#x2F;web&#x2F;20011020191610&#x2F;http:&#x2F;&#x2F;zooko.com&#x2F;...</a>
jiggawattsover 1 year ago
Simple: the financial interests of huge corporations like DigiCert.<p>They sit in standards bodies that could fill their moat and undermine every open effort.<p>It’s insidious and there’s not much anyone with less than a billions dollars of interest in the matter can do about it.<p>Maybe a government or mega corp like Google will fix it, but I’m not holding my breath…
xialvjunover 1 year ago
Why not use public key as IP. Like yggdrasil-go, use `public_key.sha256.first_63_bit === ipv6[1..64]` (maybe some data error but here is how it works). Well, yggdrasil is an overlay network, it can do that. But the ISP network cann&#x27;t. Maybe we all should move to an overlay network.
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stop50over 1 year ago
1. An txt record adds more time to the request, since you can&#x27;t start the request before opening an tls connection. 2. The browser has to go through all the TXT records. My domains already have 4-5 TXT records. 3. The dns is still pretty much insecure. Dnssec is still not always available
makeworldover 1 year ago
How do you secure the DNS entries?
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1vuio0pswjnm7over 1 year ago
Popular browsers are controlled by so-called &quot;tech&quot; companies that sell advertisiing services and seek to profit from online purchases.<p>These so-called &quot;tech&quot; companies exert oversized control over the CA scheme.<p>Pure coincidence.
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nedumaover 1 year ago
I like the thinking and direction here.<p>At least, we could use this in situations where root cert is not part of CA stores in os&#x2F;browsers.
aashutoshrathiover 1 year ago
that&#x27;s a fair question for me too. Same for DRM certificates