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jis | 5 years ago

It's actually worse. The new root (good I believe until 2038) uses the same key as the now expired certificate. It has to or it would not be possible to validate the certificates that were issued. And this new one is a root certificate installed in browsers!

What "should" happen is that no certificate should be issued with an expiration date later than the issuing certificate. Then as the issuing certificate gets closer to expiration, a new one, with a new key pair, should be created and this new certificate should sign subordinate certificates.

discuss

order

jis|5 years ago

Sorry to reply to my own comment. But I want to clarify. Two certificates (at least) expired. The root named "AddTrust External CA Root" and a subordinate certificate with a subject of "USERTrust RSA Certification Authority." Both expired around the same time.

The "USERTrust RSA Certification Authority" certificate signed yet another layer of intermediate certificates.

The "USERTrust RSA Certification Authority" certificate was promoted to a self-signed certificate, now in the browser trust stores, using the same key pair as the original certificate that was signed by "AddTrust External CA Root." It has an expiration of 2038 (although that concept is a bit vague in a root certificate).

josephcsible|5 years ago

There's actually a third certificate for "USERTrust RSA Certification Authority", also using the same key pair, signed by a different root called "AAA Certificate Services". It looks like the intended replacement for the expiring one is this one, rather than the one where it's the root itself.