Windows client - SSL certificate failure

[Richard Haselgrove]

We are getting multiple reports that Windows BOINC clients - specifically, the recommended v7.16.11 client - are having peer certificate validations errors when contacting projects.

Major projects known to be affected are CPDN and GPUGrid.

A user on the BOINC message board has attributed this to an update by Let's Encrypt: https://boinc.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=14413&postid=105526#105526

A similar event on the last day of May 2020 led to the emergency release of BOINC v7.16.7 the same day.

Could we have an announcement whether a similar thing can be done this time, please?

[Matthew Blumberg]

In case useful, here's a draft guide to help projects affected by the Let's Encrypt issue:

Let's Encrypt Certificate Issues

-- It's a first draft, by Tristan Olive; permissions allow anyone to add content where it may be useful.

-- Please do share with anyone who might find it useful.

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[Richard Haselgrove]

A new Windows client - solving the SSL certificate problem for the time being - is available to download.

Late last night (UTC), David Anderson sent this email to all Science United users:

Dear Science United user:

If you are running BOINC on a Windows computer,

please install a new version (7.16.20) of the software.

The previous version stopped working recently because of an expired SSL file

that prevented it from communicating with several BOINC projects,

with the BOINC server, and with Science United.

You can download the new version here:

https://boinc.berkeley.edu/download.php

Sorry for the inconvenience.

David Anderson

Director, Science United

A small news item was also posted earlier in the day on the BOINC website, but you may not have seen it there.

BOINC projects who have noticed a significant reduction in the number of scientific results returned by their 'traditional' BOINC Windows users, over the last three weeks, might like to consider using their own channels of communication to pass this release notification on to their volunteers.