Re: I wish I understood SSL Certificates better when they ask

From	Mike Easter <MikeE@ster.invalid>
Newsgroups	alt.os.linux
Subject	Re: I wish I understood SSL Certificates better when they ask
Date	2015-06-12 16:50 -0700
Message-ID	<cu19isFqd6jU1@mid.individual.net> (permalink)
References	<mlfqel$e09$1@solani.org>

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Posted to a.o.l only

Werner Obermeier wrote:
> I wish I understood SSL Certificates better when they ask
> me to accept a certificate from my bank.
>
> http://i.imgur.com/1mizR6B.jpg
>
> How do I make this decision?

I would look at the bankofamerica.com domain carefully for reassurance 
that I was at the correct address, which you are.

> Just now, I logged into my Bofa account from my home using
> the same browser and computer and IP address that I normally
> use.
>
> Bofa allowed me to log in, but, when I hit one of the billpay
> options, it asked me to download that SSL certificate because
> the previous certificate expired a few days ago.
>
> You'd think that a big bank would fix this in 3 days.

Yes they should; however, it is not an uncommon oversight.  It might not 
even be BoA's fault but that of the CA.

> Also, I'm using my normal browser & IP address.
> And, the domain appears to be a valid domain.

Correct.

> How do I decide if I should accept this certificate?

On that basis.  You/We know that the bankofamerica.com domain is where 
you want to be and there is no 'typo' in there.

> PS: I obfuscated the URL just in case it was specific to my
> BofA account. Did I need to do that or does the URL not matter?

In case the URL had anything to do with your account, you might as well 
obfuscate that part.  That part isn't important to discuss the issue here.

Not every question about a certificate problem is going to have the same 
answer.

-- 
Mike Easter

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Thread

Re: I wish I understood SSL Certificates better when they ask Mike Easter <MikeE@ster.invalid> - 2015-06-12 16:50 -0700
  Re: I wish I understood SSL Certificates better when they ask Mike Easter <MikeE@ster.invalid> - 2015-06-12 22:59 -0700
    Re: I wish I understood SSL Certificates better when they ask Richard Kettlewell <rjk@greenend.org.uk> - 2015-06-14 18:34 +0100
    Re: I wish I understood SSL Certificates better when they ask Michael Baeuerle <michael.baeuerle@stz-e.de> - 2015-06-15 08:04 +0000

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