Cubic

I was recently on the Microsoft Developer Network website (aka MSDN) looking at some API documentation. Many of the more popular APIs have code examples so the developer can see example usage rather than have to try to understand every nuance of the API before using it. The particular API that I was looking to use had an example, so I made the unfortunate decision to look at the code. The example was a turd. It wasn't a polished turd. It was just a normal, run-of-the-mill turd. The code had HANDLE leaks, memory leaks, and a bunch of other critical issues. It looked like it was written by a 20 line Norris Number programmer (aka newbie). Being rather bothered by this, I set out to learn how Microsoft produces its code samples. According to one source I found, the company hands the task off to interns. So, sample code that a whole bunch of other programmers are going to simply copy-pasta into their own code is being written by amateur programmers. Nothing could possibly go...

Starting a new Certificate Authority is a time-consuming, expensive, and difficult task. It is also annoying to set up and maintain SSL/TLS certificates. So I completely understand what Let's Encrypt is trying to do. Their goal? Free, functional SSL/TLS certificates that are easy to create, install/deploy, and even keep up-to-date. What's not to like about that? Well, it turns out there are some serious problems with this up-and-coming Certificate Authority (CA). I'm going to list the issues in order of concern: Doesn't solve the problems of storing roots in the browser or global trust issues. A U.S.-based company. Browser support/acceptance. Sponsored by Mozilla. Other, publicly traded, corporate sponsors. A brand-new, relatively untested, and complex issuance protocol (ACME). Limited clients (Python bindings only) and no libraries. Linux only. Each of these issues in detail: For the first issue, even though it is all we have got (Update Aug 2017...