Live data from Hacker News

Csr.io - a better certificate signing request generator

csr.io

11–20 of 30 posts

Re: Csr.io - a better certificate signing request generator

#11
Am I the only one missing an about page? There is no info whatsoever. For example I was wondering whether the certificate would be trusted by browsers or if it's self-signed. (Well it must be self-signed, it's too easy to sign one for facebook.com now, but not everybody knows that.) Who can I contact about bugs, feature requests, etc.?

Feature request: you might want to let Javascript generate the keypair so that people stop whining about letting someone else generate the private key. Although a valid argument, this isn't going to be used in production environments anyway.... Or is it, guys?!

Feature request: Let people set the key size. Also inform people about the key size (why 4096 is probably overkill at the moment).

Bug: You don't actually mention what the tool does. It generates some sort of certificate, but people will probably be under the impression that it will work instead of spawn another one of these: http://www.page-zone.com/SSL-warning-cpanel.jpg

Re: Csr.io - a better certificate signing request generator

#12
post #9

lovely interface, but the security is rendered completely pointless as the private key is generated remotely... you can't offer a secure version of this on a remote website.

You can. It's called Javascript and there are libraries to do public key encryption.

But yes, here you are right, the cert is generated by the server in this case.

Re: Csr.io - a better certificate signing request generator

#15
If you're in a position to generate a CSR, you should know that you never, EVER, let anyone else generate or even see your private key (including the commercial CA from which you're requesting a certificate). By using an online utility like this, you give the site owner an important component needed to perform man-in-the-middle attacks. Don't do it, kids.

Re: Csr.io - a better certificate signing request generator

#17
post #11

Am I the only one missing an about page? There is no info whatsoever. For example I was wondering whether the certificate would be trusted by browsers or if it's self-signed. (Well it must be self-signed, it's too easy to sign one for facebook.com now, but not everybody knows that.) Who can I contact about bugs, feature requests, etc.? Feature request: you might want to let Javascript generate the keypair so that peo…

> For example I was wondering whether the certificate would be trusted by browsers or if it's self-signed.

It's making CSRs, not certificates.

Re: Csr.io - a better certificate signing request generator

#18

While what others have said about remote private key generation is rather lapse security and could be used for malicious purposes, however for development purposes it's a neat little utility. Nice work.

A CSR is Certificate Signing Request, not a certificate, suggesting that this utility exists for the purpose of submitting a CSR to a Certificate Authority (CA). What "development purpose" could that serve? Nobody should use this, especially developers, who should know better.
Post reply on HN