Honest Ahmed (2011) • Hacker News Board

Re: Honest Ahmed (2011)

#11

Post by ithkuil » Sat, Jan 18, 2025, 11:33 AM UTC

lionkor wrote: post #5

why trust the others and not Achmed?

He's too honest

Re: Honest Ahmed (2011)

#12

Post by viraptor » Sat, Jan 18, 2025, 11:39 AM UTC

rich_sasha wrote: post #6

I get the sense it's not serious, but is there any more context?

It was written around the time one of the CAs got dropped for signing certificates they shouldn't. (I wanna say it was DigiNotar, but that was a long time ago)

Edit: it was Comodo https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comodo_Cybersecurity who allowed an affiliate to grant 9 bogus certs. (Which is probably the "cousin" part of the joke)

Re: Honest Ahmed (2011)

#13

Post by resonanttoe » Sat, Jan 18, 2025, 11:40 AM UTC

For those looking for more context - If memory serves it was in response to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comodo_Cybersecurity#Certifica... and the various controversies around it.

Honest Achmed has been one of my favorites for as long as its been around.

Re: Honest Ahmed (2011)

#14

Post by cr3cr3 » Sat, Jan 18, 2025, 11:41 AM UTC

Dragging-Syrup wrote: post #3

The best part is the website hxxps://www.honestachmed.dyndns.org/ is still up.

Yeah, and http only :) It would be hilarious if it had invalid cert.

Re: Honest Ahmed (2011)

#15

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jan 18, 2025, 11:42 AM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Honest Ahmed (2011)

#16

Post by burgerrito » Sat, Jan 18, 2025, 11:42 AM UTC

Meta question: where do people find these kinds of funny stuff??

Re: Honest Ahmed (2011)

#17

Post by cpach » Sat, Jan 18, 2025, 11:43 AM UTC

lionkor wrote: post #5

why trust the others and not Achmed?

AFAIK, major browser vendors trust any Certification Authority that follows the Baseline Requirements of the CA/Browser Forum.

https://cabforum.org/working-groups/server/baseline-requirem...

Re: Honest Ahmed (2011)

#18

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jan 18, 2025, 11:44 AM UTC

sshine wrote: post #4

(2011)

[deleted]

Re: Honest Ahmed (2011)

#19

Post by imadj » Sat, Jan 18, 2025, 11:52 AM UTC

Previously:

Bug 647959 – Add Honest Achmed's root certificate - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2463762 - April 2011 (114 comments)

Bug 647959 – Add Honest Achmed's root certificate (2011) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10839315 - January 2016 (68 comments)

Add Honest Achmed's root certificate (2011) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35490740 - April 2023 (25 comments)

Re: Honest Ahmed (2011)

#20

Post by virtualritz » Sat, Jan 18, 2025, 11:57 AM UTC

begueradj wrote: post #2

Achmed, not Ahmed ...

Yes as far as the title on the Mozilla page goes but: Ahmed is pronounced Achmed (if your first langues is e.g. English).

Among my Arab friends with that name the spelling that omits the 'c' is more common. Another common form is Ahmad which is still pronounced the same.

The version with 'c' is one that contains a pronunciation hint for people whose native language is not Arabic (but probably English). As is the one with the 'e' vs the 'a' as last vowel.

I.e. Ahmad == Ahmed == Achmed.