News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Microsoft pushes ahead with controversial ‘buy now, pay later’ feature for Edge. Parent comment

Re:Microsoft pushes ahead with controversial ‘buy now, pay l... by matt123456789 on Friday November 26, 2021 @08:43PM (#29356365)
HTTPS can be implemented in a decentralized way without a single party having access to your sites visited. DNS-over-HTTPS is by its nature centralized. So is DNS. Your DNS provider has a list of all sites they’ve resolved for you, whether it’s encrypted over using TLS or not. Maybe that doesn’t go against your point, but I wanted to clarify that the two technologies have very different privacy implications.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Microsoft pushes ahead with controversial ‘buy now, pay l... by perryizgr8 on Friday November 26, 2021 @09:00PM (#29356507)
> HTTPS can be implemented in a decentralized way

How does that work? AFAIK there is always a root authority.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Microsoft pushes ahead with controversial ‘buy now, pay l... by erikerikson on Friday November 26, 2021 @11:23PM (#29357386)
No. There are roots and you can install any root you like including one you create. Is that some amount of centralization? I don't think so though convenience and efficiency encourage it on a single and not very important dimension. Once a CA signs a cert they are no longer involved in the HTTPS protocol and really that's the bulk of the use case. As GP noted, it certainly includes "without a single party having access to your sites visited".
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Microsoft pushes ahead with controversial ‘buy now, pay l... by soraminazuki on Saturday November 27, 2021 @01:53AM (#29358149)
You can install any root you like as long as your device lets you. TVs are less likely to let you install your own root.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Microsoft pushes ahead with controversial ‘buy now, pay l... by nicce on Friday November 26, 2021 @09:14PM (#29356608)
Keys can be exchanged without root authority. Root authority is only required for identifying that website owner is who he claims to be.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Microsoft pushes ahead with controversial ‘buy now, pay l... by xyzzyz on Friday November 26, 2021 @10:18PM (#29357038)
Yes, and without verifying that the owner is who he claims to be, exchanging keys is not of much value.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Microsoft pushes ahead with controversial ‘buy now, pay l... by c22 on Friday November 26, 2021 @11:17PM (#29357350)
I dunno, knowing the owner hasn't changed since last time seems almost as good.
[ Parent | on HN ]