Author Archives: teus

CAcert signing server down for a few hours

The CAcert signing server went down at 16:00 UTC 27th June 2009. It is expected that this event is similar as what happened on the 18th of June. So it is expected that the certificate signing will be on service again at 19:00 UTC.

The CAcert signing server is needed to issue signed certificates so this part of the CAcert services is halted now to say about 19:00 UTC.

As this is the second time the hardware went down for unclear reasons, Oophaga will be asked to replace the hardware (the hardware is “dated”). If someone wants to donate a reliable rack PC (hardware requirements are small: today Intel processor, 1-2 Gb mem, today 2 disks of say 200 Gb and usb) that would help.

Ian Grigg resigned as auditor in the “audit for CAcert” project with CAcert

CAcert regrets to announce that Ian Grigg resigned as auditor for CAcert, effective the 12th of June 2009. Ian is ending his activity on behalf of CAcert Inc within the “audit for CAcert,” audit project.

Ian’s work was a primary element in the audit project, which started in the beginning of 2008. The one and a half years project is almost at the point of the second of the three mile stones. Because of the long time it takes for getting policies accepted in the far-flung CAcert Community and CAcert Board, a board run in the spare time of its members, the end date of the project has shifted greatly. The true amount of work was underestimated.
All together, this made funding and periodic payment of expenses quite troublesome.

Ian influenced and achieved quite a lot of the current set of policies, agreements and documentation. CAcert thanks Ian for his contribution. It is most regrettable that Board actions to find solutions to the problems mentioned did not succeed to undo the resignation.

CAcert now has to find another auditor, and we expect that this may take some time. In the meantime, some work still has to be done in order to get CAcert ready for an audit.
This includes: finalizing and accepting the Certificate Policy Statement (CPS); working to make sure that Organisation Assurance can be audited (i.e., write-up of the Organisation Assurer Manual, and …); continuing the audit on the code for security; continuing finding a solution for Third Party assurances; continuing to incorporate new policy functions into the Web software system; testing of the new (Sub)Root Keys; Assurance information and training, etc.

As you can see “some work” is actually quite a lot of work.

Also, Ian has an audit to-do list described in his wiki Audit To Do.

If you have any questions or would like to get involved with the audit project, please contact support at cacert.org. We’d like to hear from you.

Teus Hagen
President of Board
CAcert Inc.

CAcert signing server went down on Friday 12 June 2009 8 pm UTC

The computer signing the CAcert certificates went down Friday evening 12th of June 2009. This problem caused that no certificates could be issued. Saturday 13th of June the problem has been fixed and the machine was rebooted at about 12 am.

7th of May 2009, Ede Nld, CAcert assurance event

NLUUG logo

The dutch Linux/Unix NLUUG conference will host CAcert Assurances on Thursday 7th of May in the conference center De Reehost in Ede, Holland. See for details the NLUUG conference web page. The conference theme is Filesystems and Storage.
Be prepared and complete the assurance program form: html or pdf. Take at least 3 completed forms with you to the assurance. The plan is to do several presentations on CAcert in the community room and to inform you about the new policies and new way of doing assurances.

If you have more as 100 assurance points and have passed the CAcert Assurer Challence, so you are a CAcert Assurer, pick up your Assurer pin/badge at the CAcert booth table!
For a CAcert Organisation Assurance use the COAP form.

CAcert Assurances at ApacheCon conference

ApacheCon Europe 2009The ApacheCon Europe 2009 conference is from Wednesday 25rd of March till Friday 27th of March 2009 in Amsterdam (it is near the central railway station). Tutorials and workgroup meetings start on Monday 23rd of March.
At this conference CAcert will have an assurance booth table on Wednesday 25th of March and Friday 27th of March. For assurance preparations information: please visit the wiki page. CAcert is looking for Assurers on Thursday.
ApacheCon is the official user conference of The Apache Software Foundation, featuring in-depth training classes and more than 60 sessions by the creators of open source software such as the Apache httpd webserver, Tomcat, Lucene, Hadoop and more. New this year: BarCampApache, Open Hackathon, and Geeks for Geeks Track.

Easier assurance form preparation: use the wiki CAP and COAP html form

For an easier on-line html CAP (for individuals) or COAP (for organisations) assurance form use the html CAP form or html COAP form respectively. While one can complete the form on-line now with one’s browser, the browser is now able to make a request the completed pdf form via the CAcert site. In this easy way one will make sure that an URL is used is generating the correct URL to generate a completed assurance pdf form file.

These both HTML forms are made available from the (moinmoin) wiki. They will differ slightly from the html form, which will become available soon from the CAcert main web page as well. Note that browsers differ when complicated tables and styles are used.

The HTML forms are made available to facilitate one’s preparations at the office when one plans to attend an assurance event at exhibitions and conferences.

first EU MozCamp 2009, a chance to obtain CAcert assurances!

The first EU MozCamp 2009 is helt on 6th of March 2009 in Utrecht, Holland. You will get a chance to be fully assured on this MozCamp. Have a look at the CAcert wiki page Assurance Preparations information is provided how to prepare yourself for such an assurance event.. The assurances will be done during lunch time.

CAcert Assurance event Fosdem’09, Brussels, Sun 8 Febr 2009

At the upcoming Fosdem’09 Free and Open Source Developers’ European Meeting, 7-8 Febr 2009 in Brussels, Belgium there will be at Sunday 8th of Febr 2009 12-14 pm  a CAcert Assurance event as well a PGP signing party will be helt. During the two meeting days there will be enough assurers around to assure you also if you cannot make it on this party time.Be prepared and take the newest 2009 CAcert Assurance Programme form and for PGP your PGP fingerprint with you to the meeting. Make sure you agree to the CAcert Community Agreement and if you have at least 100 Assurance points you have passed the Assurer Challenge. For more details visit the Fosdem web pages and the Assurance Party pages.

CAcert presentation and assurance event: NLLGG Linux group, Holland

At the NLLGG BSD Community Day event on 13th of December 2008, Utrecht, the Netherlands, there will be a presentation about the CAcert Root Key generation technology, changes due to the accepted new CAcert policies and Root Key and audit project. There will be enough opportunity to obtain assurances with the new CAcert Assurance Form.

See for more details of event and the presentations the announcement and the agenda of the event.

CAcert Association membership Annual General Meeting 2008

At next Friday (7th of November) 10 pm UTC irc://irc.cacert.org/#AGM the CAcert Inc. association General Annual Meeting will take place. CAcert is an open organisation.
The CAcert Year 2008 Report gives an excellent overview of the issues for the CAcert community Certificate Authority, the planned audit and why the CA is much different and non competitive with commercial CA’s:

  1. The trust issues, the CAcert trust concept
  2. The facts and figures: assurances, certificates, assurers, covered languages.
  3. CAcert organisation chart (departments, committees, technical setup)
  4. The on going audit project plan
  5. The agreements for CAcert members, non-related parties, software distributors.
  6. The policy issues (Policy on Policy, Assurance policy, organisation assurances in different countries, communication policy,
  7. Privacy issues (European Union DPA) and measurements.
  8. and much more…

The CAcert is happy that 7 members are nominated so a full board (seven seats) will be in charge again of the association.
The wiki page Announcement of AGM 2008 gives an overview of what is expected at the AGM.