The new root Class1 certificate and the new subroot (intermediate) Class3 certificates - FAQ

The expiration of the Intermediate Class 3 Root Certificate with the serial # 00000E occurred on 20210520.

The certificate was renewed on 20210419 with a new serial # 14E228. CAcert blog - April 2021, new certificates, chain, bundle, Android version, replacing procedure

Class3 Re-sign - Members and users FAQ

CAcert has embarked on an interim project to re-sign the Class 3 root. The project is inspired by the Mozilla announcement of Dates for Phasing out MD5-based signatures and 1024-bit moduli. Community members from the Software-Assessment Project team and Critical System Administrators team rose to the challenge to prepare, test and implement a class3 re-sign procedure.

The intention is to re-sign the class3 subroot with new sha256, and rollout the certificate. All issued class3 keys are still valid, because the class3 private key is still intact. It is similiar in process and effect to a certificate renewal. All users who uses a class3-issued cert have to replace the class3 subroot certificate in their browser, email client, or server (once only).

http://svn.cacert.org/CAcert/Events/Public/pics/Class3-subroot-public-key-renewal2-600x321.jpg

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Class3 Subroot Re-sign - Press Release (English)

CAcert-Press Release

June 04, 2011

New signatures for CAcert-Class 3-Subroot-certificate - Changes for users of CAcert-Certificates

CAcert is going to re-sign its Class 3-certificate on June xxth with a new SHA256-based signature. The MD5-based signature on the old certificate is seen as not secure any more by Mozilla and is therefore deprecated. Mozilla is going to drop support for MD5-signed Class 3-subroot and end-entity certificates after 30th June. Users of Mozilla products such as Firefox and Thunderbird may experience errors when these programs try to verify such certificates.

In order to avoid warnings, webmasters and users of CAcert's Class 3-certificates will have to download and install the newly-signed certificates from CAcert's website www.cacert.org. The same procedure applies if the Class 3-certificate is used for secure e-mail communication, for code signing, or document signing.

The procedure in short:

  1. Download the new Class 3 PKI Key from http://www.cacert.org/index.php?id=3

  2. Either install it directly in your browser, or any other client program you use the certificate for, or save it to the SSL configuration directory of your webserver. For Apache this may be: /etc/apache2/ssl/class3.crt (PEM-Format)
  3. Verify the SHA1-fingerprint of the downloaded certificate:
    • AD:7C:3F:64:FC:44:39:FE:F4:E9:0B:E8:F4:7C:6C:FA:8A:AD:FD:CE

    • Example Commandline:
      • openssl x509 -fingerprint -noout -in class3.crt
    • Or look at the fingerprint when importing the certificate into the webbrowser
  4. Webmaster now re-create the necessary hash with c_rehash, or the like

By using the safe SHA256-hash CAcert is focussing on securing the internet on a continuing basis. Further information is given on CAcert's Wiki page https://wiki.cacert.org/FAQ/Class3Resign.


CAcert blog - April 2021

We already reported here in January that our Class 3 certificate is being re-signed. This was done a few weeks ago in our data centre in the Netherlands and subsequently tested extensively by our volunteers.

The new Class 3 certificate can now be downloaded here. In some days we will update the fingerprints and publish the other formats here. We recommend that all users use the new Class 3 certificate immediately, as the old certificate is approaching its expiry date and will no longer be valid after May 20th. Download the new certificate today and install it in your browser, e-mail program or certificate server as required.

All this exciting work (planning, re-signing, testing, communication) was done by volunteers from the CAcert community. They have acquired a lot of expertise over time and have worked their way up in the community. CAcert continues to offer such opportunities to interested and committed people today.

Q: Am I affected ?

Q: What do I have to do ?

Q: Do I have to recreate my class3 certificates ?

Q: My email partner receives a notification that my class3 cert produces an error

Q: Do my email partners receives a notification too if I have a class1 issued cert ?

Q: I have a server cert issued by the CAcert Root as a Class 1. Am I affected ?

Q: I have only installed a class3 issued server cert. Am I affected ?

Q: I run a website with one of these class3 certificates. How can I help my users over the transition?

Probably, we can do more here... example code? Example HTML? Example disclosures?

Q: Why don't you update Class 1-certificate that is also signed using MD5 as well while you're at it?

Q: New class3 cert doesn't work, but old class3 subroot does?

Q: Why can the root CAcert certificate (class 1) still be signed using the MD5 algorithm?

Q: I have noticed that since 20190409 CAcert has published new class 1 and 3 root certificates, signed by SHA256, with serial numbers 00000F (class 1) and 00000E (class 3). How will this affect my use of my previously issued certificates?

Explanation:

  1. The exchange of the root certificate of Class 1 forced the end of support for all MD5-signed certificates by all browsers. The intermediate class 3 certificate must also be replaced because it contains a reference to the old class 1 root certificate.
  2. Both (2) public keys and (2) private keys of both roots remain the same. Only the signing algorithm (of the Class1 Root) and link to the parent (of the Class3 Root) have changed.

Q: Validity of the Intermediate Class 3 Root certificate ended on May 20, 2021. What do I have to do?

Add your questions here ...


FAQ/Class3Resign (last edited 2021-06-02 08:35:26 by AlesKastner)