[AktiviX-discuss] Why is the security certificate bad?

[Paul M]

On Sun, 2007-12-02 at 17:21 +0000, andy baxter wrote:
> hello,
> 
> You have kindly just set up an email list for me, for discussion on 
> mental health issues (evolvingminds at aktivix.org). Thanks for this, but 
> I've had a query from someone who wants to join the list who is worried 
> because her browser is telling her that the site's security certificate 
> is bad. She wants to subscribe but isn't willing to look at the site 
> when there is a box telling her there's a problem. Personally, I just 
> ignore these messages, as I'm not sure what these certificates really 
> count for anyhow, but she isn't willing to do this, so I wanted to ask 
> if someone could say why this is happening? 

It isn't a bad certificate just one not recognised by her browser.

The certificate is issued by cacert.org a new community driven
certifying authority that issues free certificates, in contrast to
commercial certificate authorities which typically charge hundreds of
dollars for a certificate (the one I use at work charges £128 for 1
year). It is a relatively new organisation and while the root
certificates have been excepted by several linux/unix distributions they
are not yet bundled with any browsers though the are moves to include it
with mozilla/firefox. 

More information on cacert on wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAcert.org

It is possible to remove the warning if you decide to trust cacert.org
to sign certficates (and I do) by installing the root certificate.
Go to:
http://www.cacert.org/index.php?id=3

and click on the one of the links at the top (PEM format) then follow
your browsers instructions.


Paul M

> I've suggested that she 
> subscribe either through email, or else by asking me to do it for her, 
> so the problem isn't urgent, but probably should be sorted out at some 
> point.
> 


> Cheers,
> 
> andy baxter.
> 
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