[SSL Observatory] validity timestamp formats: utcTime vs. generalizedTime, TZ embedded vs. not?

Daniel Kahn Gillmor dkg at fifthhorseman.net
Sun Jan 23 20:23:43 PST 2011


hi ssl observatory folks--

has anyone run any analysis on the X.509 certs in the observatory that
indicates whether the validity timestamps are properly encoded?

  https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5280#section-4.1.2.5

constrains the acceptable form of emitted timstamp formats:

They must be utcTime before 2050, generalizedTime after.

And they must indicate their timezones in UTC (a "Z" suffix).

I was curious how many certificates don't meet either of these
requirements in the wild.

	--dkg

PS this is related to http://bugs.debian.org/610806, which is about the
behavior of GnuTLS in regard to times that don't meet the constraints
laid down in RFC 5280.

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