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HTTPS by default

security.googleblog.com

11–20 of 268 posts

Re: HTTPS by default

#11
Good stuff.

Anyone have a good recipe for setting up an HTTPS for one-off experiments in localhost? I generally don't because there isn't much of a compromise story there, but it's always been a security weakness in how I do tests and if Chrome is going to start reminding me stridently I should probably bother to fix it.

Re: HTTPS by default

#12

I have had HTTPS-by-default for years and I can say that we're past the point where there's noticeable year-to-year change for which sites aren't HTTPS. It's almost always old stuff that pre-dates Let's Encrypt (and presumably just nobody ever added HTTPS). The news site which stopped updating in 2007, the blog somebody last posted to in 2011, that sort of thing. I think it's important to emphasise that although Tim'…

I run my blog in unencrypted HTTP/1.1 just to make a point that we do not have to depend on third parties to publish content online.

And I noticed that Whatsapp is even worse than Chrome, it opens HTTPS even if I share HTTP links.

Re: HTTPS by default

#13
post #6

> HTTPS adoption expressed as a percentage of main frame page loads Why is Linux adoption at 80% when MacOS/Android/Windows are at 95%? Quite unexpected.

Tendency of Linux users to have local resources that lack TLS? phpmyadmin, netdata, duckdb ui, git-webui, whatever.

Silly question and one I should probably already know the answer to but never really got around to thinking through: are there practical concerns for not doing TLS in your home intranet?

It means that if someone has patched into your local network they can access anything in there, but they have to get in first, right? So how concerned should one be in these scenarios

(a) one has wifi with WPA2 enabled

(b) there's a Verizon-style router to the outside world but everything is wired on the house side?

Re: HTTPS by default

#14
post #3

Doesn't it already do this? I keep a domain or two on HTTP to force network-level auth flows (which don't always fire correctly when hitting HTTPS) and I've gotten warnings from Chrome about those sites every time for years... Only if I've been to the site recently does the warning not show up.

Right now it only shows a little bubble in the URL bar saying "Not Secure", I think. (So, that is a "warning", in a sense.) TFA is saying there will now be an interstitial if you attempt an HTTP connection. HSTS might also interact with this, but I'd expect an HSTS site to just cause Chrome to go for HTTPS (and then that connection would either succeed or fail). > to force network-level auth flows (which don't always…

HTTPS url?

Re: HTTPS by default

#16

I have had HTTPS-by-default for years and I can say that we're past the point where there's noticeable year-to-year change for which sites aren't HTTPS. It's almost always old stuff that pre-dates Let's Encrypt (and presumably just nobody ever added HTTPS). The news site which stopped updating in 2007, the blog somebody last posted to in 2011, that sort of thing. I think it's important to emphasise that although Tim'…

I run my blog in unencrypted HTTP/1.1 just to make a point that we do not have to depend on third parties to publish content online. And I noticed that Whatsapp is even worse than Chrome, it opens HTTPS even if I share HTTP links.

Doesn't that mean that technically, any node in the network between you and your reader can mutate the contents of the blog in-transit without anyone being the wiser (up to and including arbitrary JavaScript inline injection)?

Probably a low-threat security risk for a blog.

Re: HTTPS by default

#18

Good stuff. Anyone have a good recipe for setting up an HTTPS for one-off experiments in localhost? I generally don't because there isn't much of a compromise story there, but it's always been a security weakness in how I do tests and if Chrome is going to start reminding me stridently I should probably bother to fix it.

How exactly are unencrypted localhost connections a security weakness? To intercept the data on a loopback connection you'd need a level of access where encryption wouldn't really add much privacy.

Re: HTTPS by default

#19
What defines private sites, I wonder – beyond "such as local IP addresses like 192.168.0.1, single-label hostnames, and shortlinks like intranet/"?

Re: HTTPS by default

#20

I have had HTTPS-by-default for years and I can say that we're past the point where there's noticeable year-to-year change for which sites aren't HTTPS. It's almost always old stuff that pre-dates Let's Encrypt (and presumably just nobody ever added HTTPS). The news site which stopped updating in 2007, the blog somebody last posted to in 2011, that sort of thing. I think it's important to emphasise that although Tim'…

I run my blog in unencrypted HTTP/1.1 just to make a point that we do not have to depend on third parties to publish content online. And I noticed that Whatsapp is even worse than Chrome, it opens HTTPS even if I share HTTP links.

Do you depend on a DNS root server to map your website name to your IP address? That's a third party.

There are ways to remove that dependency, but it's going to involve a decentralized DNS replacement like Namecoin or Handshake, many of which include their own built-in alternatives to the CA system too so if "no third parties" is something you truly care about you can probably kill two birds with one stone here.

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