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Root Store Policy Suggestion

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Burton

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Jan 27, 2021, 10:11:52 AM1/27/21
to mozilla-dev-security-policy, Ben Wilson, Ryan Sleevi
Hello,

The Mozilla root store policy should include a section that sets out time
limit periods in numbered stages for non-compliance CA discussions. That
way everything is fair, can't be disputed and everyone knows when the
discussion of the non-compliance CA will conclude. Then the decision from
the root store policy owners will proceed shortly afterwards to either
accept the remediation plan from the CA or proceed with the partial or
complete removal of the CA from the root store.

These time limits below should be enough ample time for the discussion to
take place between the CA, the community and the root store policy owners.

Stage 1 (Discussion Period: *1 Week*):

- Official notification to all that an investigation regarding the
non-compliance issues of the CA has started.
- Requests for additional information, etc.

Stage 2 (Discussion Period: *4 Weeks*):

- The CA to produces a draft remediation plan.
- The CA answers all questions from the root store policy owners and the
community.
- Requests for additional information, etc.

Stage 3 (Discussion Period: *2 Weeks*):

- Discussion of the final remediation plan proposed by the CA.
- Discussion of whether to partial distrust or full distrust of the CA.
- Requests for anymore additional information.

The decision by the root store policy owners.

Thank you

Burton

Ryan Sleevi

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Jan 27, 2021, 1:58:15 PM1/27/21
to Burton, mozilla-dev-security-policy, Ryan Sleevi
>From a proposal standpoint, could you explain a bit more about the goals of
a "draft remediation plan"?

The point and purpose of Incident Reports is so that CAs are continuously
improving, and adopting meaningful improvements and remediations. At the
point at which a CA is being discussed, isn't that already evidence alone
that the CA's failure to remediate not just the incidents, but the systemic
root issues, has failed?

Recent replies such as
https://www.mail-archive.com/dev-secur...@lists.mozilla.org/msg14089.html
and
https://www.mail-archive.com/dev-secur...@lists.mozilla.org/msg14090.html
have captured how, given the nature of how PKI works, the only viable
remediation plans are those that transition to new roots. This is something
that, for example, Google Chrome explicitly recommends and encourages, at
https://g.co/chrome/root-policy , as a way of minimizing the risk to their
users.

Without expressing opinions on the current, ongoing discussion for Mozilla,
it may be useful to examine past CA incidents, as it seems that there were
several remediation plans posed by CAs in the past, yet consistently, every
single one of them failed to adequately address the very core issues, and
every one of them revealed actions the CA was already expected to be
taking, either in light of incidents or as part of the bare minimum
expectation of CAs.

I mention all of this because your emphasis on remediation plan does seem
to suggest you see there being viable paths forward, other than (at a
minimum), a transition from problematic roots to new roots, so I was hoping
you could expand, using perhaps past CA discussions rather than the current
one, as they provide ample evidence of problematic patterns.

Burton

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Jan 27, 2021, 2:45:56 PM1/27/21
to Ryan Sleevi, mozilla-dev-security-policy
Hi Ryan,

I included the remediation plan in the proposal because a CA will mostly
always include a remediation plan when they reach the stage of serious
non-compliance investigation by root store policy owners. The first
remediation plan is always a draft version as it's updated as the
discussion is ongoing. Take the recent discussion for example, the
remediation plan is version 5 which seems to be the final version.

New evidence does sometimes appear in public discussions about the CA that
wasn't found or documented earlier and I included that in the proposal as
requests for additional information.

I do agree that CAs who reach the stage of non-compliance investigation
should submit new roots.

Thank you

Burton

Ryan Sleevi

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Jan 27, 2021, 2:54:23 PM1/27/21
to Burton, Ryan Sleevi, mozilla-dev-security-policy
On Wed, Jan 27, 2021 at 2:45 PM Burton <j...@0.me.uk> wrote:

> I included the remediation plan in the proposal because a CA will mostly
> always include a remediation plan when they reach the stage of serious
> non-compliance investigation by root store policy owners.
>

Sure, but I was more asking: are you aware of any point in the past where
the remediation plan has been valuable, useful or appropriate? I'm not.

The expectation is continuous remediation, so any remediation plan at a
later stage seems too little, too late, right? The very intentional goal of
the incident reporting was to transition to a continuous improvement
process, where the CA was evaluated based on their
contemporaneous remediation to incidents, rather than waiting until things
get so bad they pile up and a remediation plan is used.

So I'm trying to understand what a remediation plan would include, during
discussion, that wouldn't (or, more explicitly, shouldn't) have been
included in the incident reports as they happened?

>

Burton

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Jan 27, 2021, 3:05:47 PM1/27/21
to Ryan Sleevi, mozilla-dev-security-policy
Hi Ryan,

These are good questions! I'll get back to you tomorrow with the answers to
your questions. I want to research and give you the right information.

Thank you

Burton

Burton

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Jan 28, 2021, 1:32:27 PM1/28/21
to Ryan Sleevi, mozilla-dev-security-policy
Hi Ryan,

The answer to your questions.

A remediation plan is only useful in cases of slight CA non-compliance to
the rules set forth by the root store policy.

A remediation plans in cases of slight CA non-compliance provides assurance
of CA commitment to compliance.

A CA under investigation of serious non-compliance with detailed documented
evidence of non-compliance incidents has reach the stage of no return.

A remediation plan in the cases of serious non-compliance is a reference
document in the case of new root inclusion as documented evidence of
commitment to compliance.

The CA roots should be removed in the case of serious non-compliance and
asked to reapply for inclusion again to the root store with new roots and
new commitment to compliance with new audits from a different auditor and
reformed practices and management.

Thank you

Burton

Ryan Sleevi

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Jan 28, 2021, 2:33:27 PM1/28/21
to Burton, Ryan Sleevi, mozilla-dev-security-policy
On Thu, Jan 28, 2021 at 1:32 PM Burton <j...@0.me.uk> wrote:

> Hi Ryan,
>
> The answer to your questions.
>
> A remediation plan is only useful in cases of slight CA non-compliance to
> the rules set forth by the root store policy.
>
> A remediation plans in cases of slight CA non-compliance provides
> assurance of CA commitment to compliance.
>

Sure, and I think (and hopefully I'm fairly stating), that the goal is
these should be provided in the Incident Reports themselves. That is, the
remediation should address both the immediate and systemic issues, and
future incidents of the CA will be judged against this.

The intent is certainly that anyone in the community participates and
reviews these, and I think we see a lot of fantastic activity on the bug
reports from people who do, which is a healthy sign, even though they're
often calling out concerns with the remediation or highlighting how it
fails to meet the expectations.


> A CA under investigation of serious non-compliance with detailed
> documented evidence of non-compliance incidents has reach the stage of no
> return.
>
> A remediation plan in the cases of serious non-compliance is a reference
> document in the case of new root inclusion as documented evidence of
> commitment to compliance.
>

> The CA roots should be removed in the case of serious non-compliance and
> asked to reapply for inclusion again to the root store with new roots and
> new commitment to compliance with new audits from a different auditor and
> reformed practices and management.
>

Right, and I think this might be premature or giving false hope, at least
to CAs that assume every CA, once removed, can simply reapply with a
remediation plan. I agree with you, it's incredibly valuable to understand
how the CA plans to address the issues, and just like incident reports,
it's useful to understand how the CA views the incidents that might lead up
to distrust and how it plans to mitigate them before reapplying. Yet we've
often seen CAs believe that because a remediation plan exists for the
identified issues, it's sufficient to apply for new roots, when really,
such CAs are working from a serious trust deficit, and so not only need to
remediate the identified issues, but show how they're going above and
beyond addressing the systemic issues, in order to justify the risk of
trusting them again. Understandably, this depends on a case-by-case basis.

To your original point, historically CA actions (generally) worked in three
phases:

1) A pattern is believed to exist (of incidents), or an incident is so
severe it warrants immediate public discussion. The community is asked to
provide details - e.g. of incidents that were overlooked, of other relevant
data - to ensure that a full and comprehensive picture of relevant facts
are gathered and understood. The CA is invited to share details (e.g. how
they mitigated such issues) or to respond to the facts, if they believe
they're not accurate.

2) A discussion about the issues themselves, to evaluate the nature of the
incidents, as well as solicit proposals from the community in particular
(rather than the CA, although the CA is welcome to contribute) about how to
mitigate the risks these issues and incidents highlight.

3) At least for Mozilla, a proposed plan for Mozilla products, which is
often based on suggestions from the community (in #2) as well as Mozilla's
own product and security considerations. Mozilla may solicit further
feedback on their plan, from the community and the CA, to make sure they've
balanced the concerns and considerations raised in #2 accurately, or may
decide it warrants immediate action.

This is a rough guide, obviously there are exceptions. For example, Mozilla
and other browsers blocking MITM roots hasn't always involved all three
stages. Similarly, in CA compromise events, Step 2 and 3 may be skipped
entirely, because the only viable solution is obvious.

Other programs, whether Apple, Google, or Microsoft, don't necessarily
operate the same way. For example, Google, Apple and Microsoft don't
provide any statement at all about public engagement, although they may
closely monitor the discussions in #1 and #2.

Step #1 has, intentionally and by design, largely been replaced by the
Incident Reporting requirements incorporated into the Root Policies of both
Mozilla and Google Chrome. That is, the incident reports, and the public
discussions of the incidents, serve to contemporaneously address issues,
identify remediations, and understand and identify how well the CA
understands the risks and is able to take meaningful corrective action.
These days, Step #1 is merely summarizing the incidents based on the
information in the incidents, and thus may not need the same lengthy
discussion in the past, prior to the incident disclosure requirements (e.g.
StartCom, WoSign).

Step #2 is still widely practiced, as we've seen throughout a number of
recent and past events. Without wanting to put words into Mozilla's mouth,
certainly it's a reflection of the principles of Mozilla's policy. Browsers
like Google Chrome, Apple Safari, and Microsoft Edge don't require #2 to
happen, although it can often provide valuable insight into their own root
programs and evaluation of the CA. Chrome comes the closest, that I'm aware
of, of calling this out, at https://g.co/chrome/root-policy, as something
they consider (they also consider discussions for inclusion, but that's
separate from this discussion)

Step #3 is fairly unique to Mozilla. I think you're right for highlighting
the community benefits from a timely transition from Step #2 to Step #3,
although that's often situational, depending on the nature and complexity
of incidents, compatibility risks between browsers, etc.

In some cases, Step #3 has called out next steps if the CA wants to pursue
"#4) Reapply" - or at least, an absolute minimum set of goals that must be
met (rather than a necessary and sufficient set of goals). But that doesn't
require an explicit/formal remediation plan - it may be a product decision
for Mozilla up-front, or it might be something that's deferred to if/when a
CA decides to reapply.

This is, at least, historically how things have worked in the time I've
been here, but of course, that's always subject to change, and has changed
as well throughout the time I've participated (e.g. transitioning #1 to
primarily formal incident reporting)

It sounds like the main thrust of your suggestion, then, is providing
clearer timelines about the transitions to these stages. Is that fair to
say?

Burton

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Jan 28, 2021, 3:18:15 PM1/28/21
to Ryan Sleevi, mozilla-dev-security-policy
That's right! My suggestion was about providing cleaner timelines of
stages.

Thank you

Burton
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