GNU bug report logs - #15792
24.3; Builtin TLS support should enable certificate verification support by default

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Package: emacs;

Reported by: Vincent Bernat <bernat <at> luffy.cx>

Date: Sat, 2 Nov 2013 18:45:02 UTC

Severity: important

Merged with 13374, 13877

Found in version 24.3

Done: Ted Zlatanov <tzz <at> lifelogs.com>

Bug is archived. No further changes may be made.

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From: help-debbugs <at> gnu.org (GNU bug Tracking System)
To: Vincent Bernat <bernat <at> luffy.cx>
Cc: tracker <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#15792: closed (24.3; Builtin TLS support should enable
 certificate verification support by default)
Date: Sat, 02 Nov 2013 21:08:01 +0000
[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]
Your message dated Sat, 02 Nov 2013 22:07:16 +0100
with message-id <87txfusebf.fsf <at> guybrush.luffy.cx>
and subject line Re: bug#15792: 24.3; Builtin TLS support should enable certificate verification support by default
has caused the debbugs.gnu.org bug report #15792,
regarding 24.3; Builtin TLS support should enable certificate verification support by default
to be marked as done.

(If you believe you have received this mail in error, please contact
help-debbugs <at> gnu.org.)


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Contact help-debbugs <at> gnu.org with problems
[Message part 2 (message/rfc822, inline)]
From: Vincent Bernat <bernat <at> luffy.cx>
To: bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org
Subject: 24.3;
 Builtin TLS support should enable certificate verification support by
 default
Date: Sat, 02 Nov 2013 16:05:21 +0100
Hi!

New builtin TLS support disables certificate verification by
default. This is a very bad practice and the default should be to check
for certificate validity.

Moreover, the end-user of a package using this builtin support has no
easy way to enable the verification of TLS certificates. For example,
Gnus does not provide anything to enable this and as a simple user, it
seems quite difficult to ensure that certificates are verified. And each
package has the responsability to enable this option. This is
cumbersome.

Previously, enabling/disabling certificate verification was easy. You
set `tls-program` variable to something that checks or don't check for
certificates. For gnutls-client, this was a matter of using or not using
the `--insecure` switch.

I didn't find a way to disable the builtin TLS support (other than to
recompile Emacs).

I propose:

 1. Verify the certificates by default.
 2. Prompt the user if there is a problem.
 3. Add the possibility to not check for certificates by default.

I can provide a patch for the first step but I have little Emacs-fu for
the other two parts (all the more that most of the code is in C).
-- 
Use variable names that mean something.
            - The Elements of Programming Style (Kernighan & Plauger)


[Message part 3 (message/rfc822, inline)]
From: Vincent Bernat <bernat <at> luffy.cx>
To: Glenn Morris <rgm <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 15792-close <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#15792: 24.3;
 Builtin TLS support should enable certificate verification support by
 default
Date: Sat, 02 Nov 2013 22:07:16 +0100
 ❦  2 novembre 2013 19:48 CET, Glenn Morris <rgm <at> gnu.org> :

> See http://debbugs.gnu.org/13374 and related discussion.

Thanks! Sorry for the duplicate, I didn't find this bug report.
-- 
printk("??? No FDIV bug? Lucky you...\n");
	2.2.16 /usr/src/linux/include/asm-i386/bugs.h


This bug report was last modified 11 years and 208 days ago.

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