Re: what can go in root.crt ?

On 5/25/20 3:32 PM, Chapman Flack wrote:
> On 05/25/20 15:15, Chapman Flack wrote:
>> Does that mean it also would fail if I directly put the server's
>> end-entity cert there?
>>
>> Would I have to put all three of WE ISSUE TO ORGS LIKE YOURS,
>> WE ISSUE TO LOTS, and WE ISSUE TO EVERYBODY in the root.crt file
>> in order for verification to succeed?
>>
>> If I did that, would the effect be any different from simply putting
>> WE ISSUE TO EVERYBODY there, as before? Would it then happily accept
>> a cert with a chain that ended at WE ISSUE TO EVERYBODY via some other
>> path? Is there a way I can accomplish trusting only certs issued by
>> WE ISSUE TO ORGS LIKE YOURS?
> The client library is the PG 10 one that comes with Ubuntu 18.04
> in case it matters.
>
> I think I have just verified that I can't make it work by putting
> the end entity cert there either. It is back working again with only
> the WE ISSUE TO EVERYBODY cert there, but if there is a workable way
> to narrow that grant of trust a teensy little bit, I would be happy
> to do that.
>

The trouble is I think you have it the wrong way round. It makes sense
to give less trust to a non-root CA than to one of its up-chain
authorities, e.g. only trust it for certain domains, or for a lesser
period of time. But it doesn't seem to make much sense to trust the
up-chain CA less, since it is what you should base your trust of the
lower CA on.

cheers

andrew

--
Andrew Dunstan https://www.2ndQuadrant.com
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