Digital Certificate: Fails and Flounders
2025-04-26 , Track 2

"The Digital Certificate is like your Driver's License"
Well I wouldn't want my driver's license posted publicly. What's a better way to think about it?
This short talk goes into some common misconfigurations of Digital Certificates found in the wild.
And maybe, just maybe, a better way to describe these to non-technical folks.


This talk holds a quick overview into how digital certificates are used to validate the identity of the holder, a historical review of why that is important, and the danger of pushing too much information in your digital certificate.

Quick Examples:
- Exposed Mail Servers on "novelty" sites
- HTTP redirects when simply viewing the certificate over HTTPS
- Untrusted Firewall due to Linux vs Windows formatting

As a technical trainer and security researcher, it is my goal to spread awareness and knowledge. Experience includes: lecturing about cybersecurity, moderating open discussions about vulnerabilities, and building hacking labs for students. Like many others, I often delve too deep into the weeds of the internet.