SSL Test Suite: SSL Certificate Test Public Key Infrastructure

Abstract

Today, many internet-based applications, especially e-commerce and banking applications, require the transfer of personal data and sensitive data such as credit card information, and in this process, all operations are carried out over the Internet. Users frequently perform these transactions, which require high security, on web sites they access via web browsers. This makes the browser one of the most basic software on the Internet. The security of the communication between the user and the website is provided with SSL certificates, which is used for server authentication. Certificates issued by Certificate Authorities (CA) that have passed international audits must meet certain conditions. The criteria for the issuance of certificates are defined in the Baseline Requirements (BR) document published by the Certificate Authority/Browser (CA/B) Forum, which is accepted as the authority in the WEB Public Key Infrastructure (WEB PKI) ecosystem. Issuing the certificates in accordance with the defined criteria is not sufficient on its own to establish a secure SSL connection. In order to ensure a secure connection and confirm the identity of the website, the certificate validation task falls to the web browsers with which users interact the most. In this study, a comprehensive SSL certificate public key infrastructure (SSL Test Suite) was established to test the behavior of web browsers against certificates that do not comply with BR requirements. With the designed test suite, it is aimed to analyze the certificate validation behaviors of web browsers effectively.