certificates

The National Security Agency (NSA) has told Microsoft about a major Windows 10 bug which also affects Windows Server 2016 and 2019. A patch is already available and is a must install. For the NSA to tell Microsoft about a Windows vulnerability and ... then discuss it publicly is relatively rare. In the past, the NSA has used such security flaws to take advantage of potential suspects, as part of its surveillance program. In this case, the bug was so serious the NSA seems to have concluded any benefits it could gain itself would be more than wiped out by the threat to the general public (and US ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Steve T. writes: " Dear Dennis, I recently upgraded my OpenVPN from version 2.3.2 (back in 2014) to the latest version 2.4.6, but now my OpenVPN server is broken. I checked the log files and it says ' SSL ... routines:SSL_CTX_use_certificate:ca md too weak ', followed by 'Cannot load certificate file /path/cert.crt'. I have tried embedding my certificates inside the server.ovpn file (rather than having it point somewhere externally), but that does not help. It simply won't load the certificate. I've researched this issue for days and keep coming across a forum post on the ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Tom G. writes: " Dear Dennis, I am trying to send encrypted email to a friend using MS Outlook . To do so, I purchased a digital certificate from Comodo, then imported the certificate into Outlook. I could send my friend digitally ... signed messages which he could read and reply to. He could send me digitally signed and encrypted messages, which I could read and reply to. However, I could not generate an encrypted message; I could only reply to his. I could not create an encrypted message from scratch. When attempting to initiate an encrypted message, I was told ' Microsoft ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Martin R. writes: " The email newsletter I receive from you is showing in my gmail as "unencrypted," with a red pad lock . There is also a new warning banner that says: 'Be careful with this message. It contains content that's ... typically used to steal personal information.' The options are: learn more, report this suspicious message, ignore, or 'I trust this message.' This is not the only email I get that shows as unencrypted. What does this mean and how can it be fixed? " My response: Essentially it means that the mail you received (at gmail) was not sent using email ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Gord F. writes: " Dear Dennis, I have a very vexing issue. For the last few weeks, Firefox randomly produces a ' This connection is untrusted ' message whenever I try to sign out of my Outlook email account (outlook.live.com), or ... when I visit other secure websites. It seems to work one minute, then it won't work the next. If I shut down and restart the computer the 'This connection is untrusted' error disappears, only to pop up again the next time I visit a secure website at some point in the day. When I see a 'This connection is untrusted' message, I've clicked the ' ... (view more)

Infopackets reader Julia R. writes: " Dear Dennis, I recently installed Windows 10 and while cleaning things up, inadvertently installed a program called 'Advanced PC Care' from my Download folder. Now when I go to use Internet Explorer 11 and Edge ... in Windows 10, I receive an error message stating: 'There is a problem with this website's security certificate,' no matter what website I try and visit. I have uninstalled the Advanced PC Care program but both IE11 and Edge are broken. I am completely at my wits end. Can you help? " My response: I asked Julia if she would like me to connect to her ... (view more)