Over 14K 'Let's Encrypt' SSL Certificates Issued To PayPal Phishing Sites (bleepingcomputer.com)

BleepingComputer reports: During the past year, Let's Encrypt has issued a total of 15,270 SSL certificates that contained the word 'PayPal' in the domain name or the certificate identity. Of these, approximately 14,766 (96.7%) were issued for domains that hosted phishing sites, according to an analysis carried out on a small sample of 1,000 domains, by Vincent Lynch, encryption expert for The SSL Store... Lynch, who points out the abuse of Let's Encrypt's infrastructure, doesn't blame the Certificate Authority (CA), but nevertheless, points out that other CAs have issued a combined number of 461 SSL certificates containing the term "PayPal" in the certificate information, which were later used for phishing attacks... Phishers don't target these CAs because they're commercial services, but also because they know these organizations will refuse to issue certificates for certain hot terms, like "PayPal," for example. Back in 2015, Let's Encrypt made it clear in a blog post it doesn't intend to become the Internet's HTTPS watchdog.
Of course, some web browsers don't even check whether a certificate has been revoked. An anonymous reader writes: Browser makers are also to blame, along with "security experts" who tell people HTTPS is "secure," when they should point out HTTPS means "encrypted communication channel," and not necessarily that the destination website is secure.

Comments

More tips for browser makers

[sootman]

(... because I'm sure they read /. and value my opinion... )

1. NEVER hide ANY part of the URL. If the URL extends beyond the size of the location box, give a nice big '...' for people to click on to see it.

2. ALWAYS show a status bar that ALWAYS shows what URL I'll go to if I click a link. NEVER allow ANYTHING to change this behavior.

3. NEVER hide the protocol.

4. Don't allow 'data' URIs in the URL bar by default. https://www.wordfence.com/blog... (This also relates to #1)

5. Don't make SUCH a big damn deal about 'https' -- big green text, giant padlock icons, etc. I've been telling people for YEARS that an HTTPS connection to bankofamurica.ru is worth NOTHING.

This won't solve everything, but the least that browser makers can do is give people the tools they need to help them make good decisions. Long story short, QUIT HIDING SHIT!

6. Bonus: enough with all these new shit TLDs. Is a world where http://blog.google/ exists (note: it does) REALLY a better place than one where it doesn't? Or is it just more confusing?

Re: Never saw that coming

[Miamicanes]

A domain-validated cert guarantees *nothing* besides, "this cert was issued to a likely admin at $host.$domain.$tld."

The expectation is that clients (ie, web browsers) will compare the tail end of the hostname to the CN on the cert, and take appropriate action if they don't match.

They guarantee *nothing* about the identity of the site's owner, the legitimacy of their domain's ownership, or anything else.

DV certs exist because sometimes, all you care about is preventing MITM attacks to web users. Period. The onus is still on *you* to verify that login.chase.com.lucky7domainpark69.com is, in fact, the login page for your bank, and not a phisher's site. All a DV cert for that domain guarantees is that someone running a fake/compromised wifi access point can't intercept, read, or tamper with the request or response.

This is why banks pay thousands of dollars for "EV" certs. A CA issuing an EV cert IS expected to have "boots on the ground" physically verifying that the cert's applicant is who they say they are, has an office where they say they do, etc. They themselves STILL guarantee nothing about how data is secured or used after decryption.

TL/DR:

DV cert: the other party is whomever controls $(some-specific-domain).

EV cert: same as DV, but adds guarantee that they're ALSO whom they claim to be. They might STILL be evil & crooked, but at least you might conceivably hunt them down in the real world if they do something bad.