1)Alice wants to make a purchase from Etailer.com, an online retail store. She notices that her web browser received a copy of Etailer.com's X.509 certificate, which contains Etailer.com's public key. Alice notices that the certificate also includes an RSA signature from a certificate authority(CA). a) how can alice be sure that the public key listed on the certificate really belongs to Etailer.com? be specific b) what would be the security impact if a CA was compromised in some manner? be specific c)why can Alice rely on the CA to validate Etailer.com's certificate? be specific
1)Alice wants to make a purchase from Etailer.com, an online retail store. She notices that her web browser received a copy of Etailer.com's X.509 certificate, which contains Etailer.com's public key. Alice notices that the certificate also includes an RSA signature from a certificate authority(CA). a) how can alice be sure that the public key listed on the certificate really belongs to Etailer.com? be specific b) what would be the security impact if a CA was compromised in some manner? be specific c)why can Alice rely on the CA to validate Etailer.com's certificate? be specific
Database System Concepts
7th Edition
ISBN:9780078022159
Author:Abraham Silberschatz Professor, Henry F. Korth, S. Sudarshan
Publisher:Abraham Silberschatz Professor, Henry F. Korth, S. Sudarshan
Chapter1: Introduction
Section: Chapter Questions
Problem 1PE
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1)Alice wants to make a purchase from Etailer.com, an online retail store. She notices that her web browser received a copy of Etailer.com's X.509 certificate, which contains Etailer.com's public key. Alice notices that the certificate also includes an RSA signature from a certificate authority(CA).
a) how can alice be sure that the public key listed on the certificate really belongs to Etailer.com? be specific
b) what would be the security impact if a CA was compromised in some manner? be specific
c)why can Alice rely on the CA to validate Etailer.com's certificate? be specific
Expert Solution
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Step 1
a)
- In cryptography, X.509 is a standard form of public key certificates.
- When an organization like by given problem Etailer.com wants a X.509 certificate,it requests via a certificate signing request(CSR).
- It generates a key pair - one public key and one private key, keeping the private key secret and using it to sign the CSR.
- The CSR is accompanied by credentials or proofs of identity required by the certificate authority(CA).
- A certificate authority is an entity that ensures the ownership of a public key by the named subject of the certificate.
- After accepting the CSR, the certification authority issues a certificate binding a public key to a particular distinguished name.
- This certification allows others (relying parties) to be sure that the private key corresponds to the certified entity only.
- CAs are trusted third parties for the browsers' users.
- Hence, alice can be sure that the public key listed on the certificate really belongs to Etailer.com.
Step 2
b)
- If a CA is compromised in some manner, it can be used to spoof someone.
- Suppose,an attacker is able to steal a certificate authority's private key.Now he is able to issue certificates by claiming himself as the certificate authority.
- So the relying parties on the original Certificate Authority will be unknowingly are trapped by the attacker.
- This type of security breach can be happened if a CA is compromised.
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