Category Archives: Information

General news/information to the CAcert community or about security in general

CAcert significantly reduces power consumption

DEUTSCH weiter unten FRANÇAIS voir plus bas

The operation of servers in a data centre is always associated with power consumption. And at the latest since the winter of 2022/2023 with the energy shortage in Europe, broad sections of the population have also realised that electricity consumption is associated with costs.

We at CAcert have been looking at our technical equipment for some time now: on the one hand, it should be cost-effective to purchase, as we don’t have an infinite amount of money and handle our friends’ donations with care. On the other hand, we will also take a look at the operating costs.

Some time ago, we drew up a plan to replace old, long-depreciated appliances that were becoming increasingly prone to failure and consuming a lot of electricity in several stages. The planning and initial steps were started by Secure-U before the machinery was transferred to CAcert Inc.

A look at the diagram above shows the success of these measures. August is shown as an example for the years 2014-2022, followed by all months for 2023-2023: Consumption was reduced from 600-800 kWh to around 200 kWh in two steps. This enabled us to offset the doubling of the electricity price.

Anyone who wants to share in the reduced electricity costs or make a contribution to fill the hole in the till that the purchase of the machines has torn as a small thank you to those volunteers who did the installation of the new servers in their spare time for you: Donation account CAcert: IBAN CH02 0077 4010 3947 4420 0 or with bank or credit card.

CAcert reduziert Stromverbrauch signifikant
Der Betrieb von Servern in einem Datenzentrum ist immer mit Stromverbrauch verbunden. Und spätestens seit dem Winter 2022/2023 mit der Energiemangellage in Europa ist auch breiten Schichten bewusst, dass Stromverbruach mit Kosten verbunden ist. Wir von CAcert beschäftigen uns schon länger mit unserer technischen Ausrüstung: Einerseits soll sie kostenkünstig sein in der Anschaffung, da wir nicht unendlich viel Geld haben und mit den Spendengeldern unserer Freunde sorgfältig umgehen. Andererseits werden wir auch einen Blick auf die Betriebskosten.

So haben wir schon vor längerem einen Plan erstellt, wie wir alte, längst abgeschriebene Gerät, die immer störungsanfälliger wurden und viel Strom verbrauchten in mehreren Schritten ersetzen können. Die Planung und die ersten Schritte wurden noch von Secure-U begonnen, bevor der Maschinenpark an CAcert Inc überging. Ein Blick auf obenstehendes Diagramm zeigt den Erfolg dieser Massnahmen. Für die Jahre 2014-2022 ist jeweils exemplarisch der August gezeigt, anschliessend alle Monate für 2023-2023: Der Verbrauch von 600-800 kWh konnte in zwei Schritten auf rund 200 kWh gesenkt werden. So konnten wir die Verdoppelung des Strompreises auffangen.

Wer sich an den reduzierten Stromkosten beteiligen will oder mit einem Beitrag das Loch in der Kasse auffüllen, das die Anschaffung der neuen Maschinen gerissen hat: Spendenkonto von CAcert: IBAN CH02 0077 4010 3947 4420 0 oder mit Bank- oder Kreditkarte.

CAcert réduit massivement la consommation d’énergie
L’exploitation de serveurs dans un centre de données est toujours liée à la consommation d’électricité. Et depuis l’hiver 2022/2023 et la pénurie d’énergie en Europe, de larges couches de la population sont conscientes que la consommation d’électricité est liée à des coûts.

Chez CAcert, nous nous préoccupons depuis longtemps de notre équipement technique : d’une part, il doit être peu coûteux à l’achat, car nous n’avons pas des moyens illimités et nous gérons avec soin les dons de nos amis. D’autre part, nous allons également jeter un coup d’œil sur les coûts d’exploitation.
Ainsi, nous avons établi depuis longtemps un plan pour remplacer en plusieurs étapes les anciens appareils amortis depuis longtemps, qui devenaient de plus en plus sujets aux pannes et consommaient beaucoup d’électricité. La planification et les premières étapes ont été entamées par Secure-U avant que le parc de machines ne soit transféré à CAcert Inc.

Un coup d’œil sur le diagramme ci-dessus montre le succès de ces mesures. Pour les années 2014-2022, le mois d’août est montré à titre d’exemple, puis tous les mois pour 2023-2023 : La consommation de 600-800 kWh a pu être réduite en deux étapes à environ 200 kWh. Nous avons ainsi pu compenser le doublement du prix de l’électricité.

Ceux qui souhaitent participer à la réduction des coûts d’électricité ou combler par une contribution le trou dans la caisse que l’achat des nouvelles machines a creusé : Compte de dons CAcert: IBAN CH02 0077 4010 3947 4420 0 ou avec une carte bancaire ou de crédit.

Visit at the Datacenter on 2024-02-02

Today we visited the datacenter again to return the newly installed backup machine webdb2 and verify some settings on the signer machines.

While we were onsite, we updated neary all critical machines (including our main firewall), which caused outages of some minutes of our services.

After all updates were done we ran some tests including issuing Class1 and Class3-certifcates (client and server). A minor isse with crl-server (not running the rsync-service) was corrected afterwards remotely.

Both signers are now communicating with their webdb-servers. In the next days we’ll set up an automatic backup of webdb1 to webdb2 so webdb2 can fully replace webdb1 in case of a failure, which could not be corrected remoted.

Client certificate login temporarily not possible

Today we had been informed about an issue with client certificates issued on or after December 20, 2023 being used for login to www.cacert.org.

We did immediately switched off the login to www.CAcert.org for investigation.

We just activated the Username/Password-Login again, but keep the certificate login closed until the issue is resolved.

We will give an update with more details and plan to active certificate login again as soon as the issue is fixed.

I cannot create or renew my certificate, because it hangs ||| Help – Hilfe – au secours – aiuto

A typical message from an user: “Certificate renewal in state ‘pending’ for days. How to remove/renew then?”

Don’t worry, there is a solution (and the reason is independent from CAcert). Please follow the steps as described in the wiki: https://wiki.cacert.org/FAQ/CertCreationRenewalStucks

Deutsch: Wenn die Zertifikatserneuerung in der Endlosschleife endet: Es gibt eine Lösung: https://wiki.cacert.org/FAQ/CertCreationRenewalStucks/DE

Français: Si le renouvellement de certificats dure des heures, voir des jours: voici la solution: https://wiki.cacert.org/FAQ/CertCreationRenewalStucks/FR

català | castellano | ?esky | español | italiano | ??? | nederlands | polski | português | ??????? | svenska | ??????????

Donations ??? Spenden

Fortunately, there are always users of our services who show their appreciation and contribute to the operating costs. There are various ways to do this, which we would like to point out once again – above all, that sometimes things change over time.

  • Bank transfer: This is our treasurer’s preference. The money is immediately where it belongs: in the safe of a solid bank. There are banks that charge indecently high fees for bank transfers. Is that the case with your bank? Or do you live in a country without SEPA/IBAN? Then there is an alternative:
  • In that case, follow one of the four QR codes. They will take you to Conotoxia. There you can pay with the usual bank cards and credit cards without having to open an account. The money also comes to us. The service is based in the EU and is regulated accordingly.
  • Paypal is not an alternative. The links repeatedly don’t work and if Paypal considers small donations to be money laundering or terrorist financing, it is blocked for months. We have already contacted the financial supervisory authority of the relevant tax haven.
CAcert Inc
CH-7514 Sils/Segl
IBAN: CH02 0077 4010 3947 4420 0
Graubündner Kantonalbank, Chur
Clearing 774
BIC (SWIFT) GRKBCH2270A

50 EUR

100 EUR

20 EUR

10 EUR

DEUTSCH Es gibt glücklicherweise immer wieder Nutzer unserer Dienste, welche sich erkenntlich zeigen und sich an den Betriebskosten beteiligen. Dazu gibt es verschiedene Möglichkeiten, die wir gerne noch einma aufzeigen – vor allem auch, das sich im Laufe der Zeit auch manchmal etwas ändert.

  • Banküberweisung: Das hat unser Kassier am liebsten. Das Geld ist sofort, dort wo es hingehört: im Tresor einer soliden Bank.
    Es gibt Banken, welche für Überweisungen unanständig hohe Gebühren verlangen. Ist das bei deiner Hausbank der Fall? Oder wohnst du in einem Land ohne SEPA/IBAN? Dann gibt es eine Alternative:
  • In dem Fall, folge einem der vier QR-Codes. Sie führen zu Conotoxia. Dort kannst du mit den üblichen Bankkarten und Kreditkarten bezahlen, ohne eine Konto eröffnen zu müssen. Das Geld kommt auch zu uns. Der Dienst ist in der EU angesiedelt und entsprechend reguliert.
  • Keine Alternative ist Paypal. Die Verknüpfungen funktionieren immer wieder nicht und wenn Paypal Kleinspenden als Geldwäscherei ansieht oder Terrorfinanzierung, wird es über Monate blockiert. Wir haben bereits mit der Finanzaufsicht der zuständigen Steueroase Kontakt aufgenommen.

FRANÇAIS Il y a heureusement toujours des utilisateurs de nos services qui se montrent reconnaissants et participent aux frais d’exploitation. Il existe différentes possibilités que nous aimerions vous présenter, surtout parce que les choses changent parfois au fil du temps.

  • Virement bancaire: c’est ce que notre caissier préfère. L’argent est immédiatement là où il doit être: dans le coffre d’une banque solide. Il existe des banques qui facturent des frais indécents pour les virements. Est-ce le cas de ta banque habituelle? Ou tu habites dans un pays sans SEPA/IBAN? Dans ce cas, il existe une alternative:
  • Dans ce cas, suis l’un des quatre codes QR. Ils mènent à Conotoxia. Tu peux y payer avec les cartes bancaires et les cartes de crédit habituelles, sans devoir ouvrir un compte. L’argent arrive aussi chez nous. Le service est basé dans l’UE et réglementé en conséquence.
  • Paypal n’est pas une alternative. Les liens ne fonctionnent toujours pas et si Paypal considère les petits dons comme du blanchiment d’argent ou du financement du terrorisme, il est bloqué pendant des mois. Nous avons déjà pris contact avec l’autorité de surveillance financière du paradis fiscal concerné.

CAcert Services mostly running again

In Wednesday another visit at the datacenter took place, where we installed the updated webdb1-machine to the rack.

There are still some minor issues left (e.g. language selection for main website, automatic mails), which will be activated again remotely withins the next days.

This time the available time on critical teams site was blocked by some investigation issues (e.g.: What caused the outage, why did the internal routines and raid did not work) and non CAcert-related issues (as we all have a family and job, which are time-consuming as well) and and outage of usable internet-connection on critical teams site.

Naming this: If you’re living next to or in Netherlands and want to give us a helping hand for infrastructure and (possible) critical team feel free to contact us via support.

Partially restricted operation / most services available

As a result of a chain of technical failures of old equipment already scheduled for replacement, there are currently certain limitations in the services provided to members of the CAcert community. We regret this terribly.

  • bugs.cacert.org ?Bug management: normal operation
  • community.cacert.org ?Service hub: normal operation
  • irc.cacert.org ?IRC: normal operation
  • secure.cacert.org ?reduced service
  • selfservice.cacert.org ?password reset: normal operation
  • webmail.cacert.org ?webmail: normal operation
  • wiki.cacert.org ?wiki/help centre: normal operation
  • www.cacert.org ?main page: reduced service

Mid september, we discovered that a partition contained a corrupt file system. A
subsequent hardware test showed that one of the hard drives was reporting hardware errors. In order to be able to continue using the system, we have moved this partition to a second drive.

Since the end of september the system no longer responds. We suspect that other partitions are defective. Neither web access nor SSH access work, so the only way to find the error can only be analysed in more detail by a visit to our data centre.
In order to still be able to offer as many services as possible to the CAcert community until the repair, we redirected the connections for www.cacert.org and secure.cacert.org in the incoming firewall to the second system. As a result of ongoing hardware renewal, however, this fall-back level is not quite complete: There is no working signer and no up-to-date copy of the CAcert database attached to this system.

That is, why the main page can be used as a start for informing our users about the blog for now, while certificate issuing and WoT access has to be postponed until our technical volunteers have made the several-hour trip to the data centre for troubleshooting. As they are doing this in their spare time and at their own expense, we are very grateful to these volunteers that they will probably be able to do this in mid-October.

If you would like to know what you can do yourself to ensure that such interruptions occur less frequently and are resolved more quickly, read this!

DEUTSCH: Infolge einer kaskadierten technischen Störung sind zur Zeit leider nicht alle Dienstleistungen übers Netz abrufbar. Alle Fernwartschritte haben unsere technischen Freiwilligen bereits unternommen. Bis zu einen Vororteinsatz im Rechenzentrum im Ausland voraussichtlich Mitte Oktober ist der Zugriff auf den Signer und die Datenbank nicht möglich. Wir bedauern dies sehr. Was Sie tun können, um solche Ausfallzeiten künftig zu verringern, lesen Sie hier!

FRANÇAIS: Suite à une panne technique en cascade, tous les services ne sont malheureusement pas accessibles en ligne pour le moment. Toutes les démarches de télémaintenance ont déjà été effectuées par nos volontaires techniques. L’accès au Signer et à la base de données est impossible jusqu’à une intervention sur place dans le centre de calcul à l’étranger, probablement mi-octobre. Nous le regrettons vivement. Vous pouvez lire ici ce que vous pouvez faire pour réduire ces temps d’arrêt à l’avenir!

PORTUGUÊS: Devido a uma falha técnica em cascata, infelizmente nem todos os serviços estão disponíveis pela rede no momento. Todas as medidas de manutenção remota já foram tomadas por nossos voluntários técnicos. O acesso ao signatário e ao banco de dados não será possível até uma visita no local ao centro de dados no exterior, provavelmente em meados de outubro. Lamentamos muito o ocorrido. Leia aqui o que você pode fazer para reduzir esses períodos de inatividade no futuro!

ESPAÑOL: Debido a un fallo técnico en cascada, lamentablemente no todos los servicios están disponibles actualmente a través de la red. Nuestros voluntarios técnicos ya han tomado todas las medidas de mantenimiento a distancia. El acceso al firmante y a la base de datos no será posible hasta una visita in situ al centro de datos en el extranjero, probablemente a mediados de octubre. Lo lamentamos mucho. Lea aquí lo que puede hacer para reducir estos tiempos de inactividad en el futuro.

Certificate renewing is pending (update & help)

Some of our community members (users) get a problem while they try to renew an existing certificate. The issue is: Certificate renewal is pending for days/weeks.

First of all, CAcert is not a service provider or a company, but a community. We are all in the same boat. We can only achieve our goals together, with your the cooperation of all of us (of all users=members).

One of our volunteer support engineers, a retired gentleman somewhere in Bohemia, wrote, after he watererd the flowers in the garden:
1. Many users use CAcert without any assurance. Until now, their CSRs were signed by Class 1 Root (–> serial # 1xxxxx) and their CSRs/renewals are stuck in a queue now.
2. These users know absolutely nothing about existence Class 1 & Class 3 Roots, as they don’t remember installing root(s), and when creating a new cert, they cannot see the choice Class 1/3, because with <50 assurance points (trust points) it isn’t displayed.
3. Many users do not know about the existence of Wiki, bugs, blog, CATS… websites. Our education possibly fails in this direction.

And from Alsace, a baker who is also CAcert volunteer writes after putting the children to bed: There is a lot of information and many tutorials are at the FAQ at https://wiki.cacert.org How to create a certificate can be found at: https://wiki.cacert.org/HowTo/ClientCertCreate/

Another help message was sent by a CAcert volunteer who works as a bus driver from his mobile phone during the short break at the terminus: To get assurance points, the easyest way is to meet with two (or three) experienced assurers who can then credit you with the assurance (trust) points you need (you need 50 and get 10-35 per assurer). When you are on cacert.org in your account, go to the Web Of Trust: https://www.cacert.org/wot.php?id=12 (here you can enter your town and search for assurers in the area) or: https://www.cacert.org/wot.php?id=1 (here you can click through to choose from about 6000 assurers worldwide).

Thank you very much to all our active community members who helps here and there and gives other community members a hand. Even very little help is helpfull. If e.g. each of the 6000 assurers from the assurer directory helps with something small for 10 minutes per month, that is already 1000 hours of work. That would solve (almost) all problems. Here is how you too can give your CAcert community a hand: https://wiki.cacert.org/engagement

And another volunteer from Sweden points out, that the issue will not go away till the interface is fixed, which is a work that has been started, but not finished. Furthermore, renewing old incorrectly signed certificates will never work again, as we have said we will not fix the broken code for that, as no certificates should ever have been signed that way. We can’t continue signing them incorrectly.

Entdecke ennet dem Rhein CAcerts neuer Quell’

Wenn die Sommerhitze unerträglich wird, dann ist es höchste Zeit, sich an den Gestaden des Rheins etwas zu erfrischen. Und was liegt näher, als darauf ennet dem kühlen Nass seine Schritte nach St. Augustin zu lenken, wo die Freiwilligen von CAcert an der FrOScon etwas absolut Neues persönlich vorstellen?