Let's Encrypt serves nearly 30% of domains

RC4 / 3DES / TLS 1.0 and certificates for hundreds of years are still in use. Analysis of hundreds of millions of SSL handshakes

If you look at a data set with 350 million SSL connections , several questions immediately arise:

who issued these certificates
what cryptography is there
what is their life time

Let's Encrypt issued certificates for nearly 30% of domains

Our server ( leebutterman.com ) automatically receives Let's Encrypt certificates - this is the most popular certificate authority on the Internet! Over 47 million domains are protected by Let's Encrypt certificates, i.e. almost 30% of our sample.

352.3 million domains were able to establish 158.7 million connections with the certificate and issuer. Top Ten:

  47.2 million Let's Encrypt
 28.9 million DigiCert
 13.8 million Comodo
 10.1 million google
 7.2 million GoDaddy
 7.1 million Sectigo
 7.0 million cpanel
 6.1 million GlobalSign
 3.4 million CloudFlare0
 2.5 million Amazon
 2.1 million (anonymous self-signing)
 1.1 million Plesk

More than 100 thousand times this aggregate issuer_dn s is found:

193590544 null 47237383 C = US, O = Let's Encrypt, CN = Let's Encrypt Authority X3 13367305 C = US, O = DigiCert Inc, OU = www.digicert.com, CN = DigiCert SHA2 High Assurance Server CA 13092572 C = GB, ST = Greater Manchester, L = Salford, O = COMODO CA Limited, CN = COMODO RSA Domain Validation Secure Server CA 10081610 C = US, O = Google Trust Services, CN = Google Internet Authority G3 7048258 C = US, ST = TX, L = Houston, O = cPanel, Inc., CN = cPanel, Inc. Certification Authority 6772537 C = GB, ST = Greater Manchester, L = Salford, O = Sectigo Limited, CN = Sectigo RSA Domain Validation Secure Server CA 4946970 C = US, O = DigiCert Inc, OU = www.digicert.com, CN = RapidSSL RSA CA 2018 3926261 C = GB, ST = Greater Manchester, L = Salford, O = COMODO CA Limited, CN = COMODO ECC Domain Validation Secure Server CA 2 3727005 C = US, ST = Arizona, L = Scottsdale, O = GoDaddy .com, Inc., OU = http: //certs.godaddy.com/repository/, CN = Go Daddy Secure Certificate Authority - G2 3483129 C = US, ST = Arizona, L = Scottsdale, O = Starfield Technologies, Inc. , OU = http: //certs.starfieldtech.com/repository/, CN = Starfield Secure Certificate Authority - G2 3404488 C = US, ST = CA, L = San Francisco, O = CloudFlare, Inc., CN = CloudFlare Inc ECC CA-2 2523036 C = US, O = Amazon, OU = Server CA 1B, CN = Amazon 2498667 C = US, O = DigiCert Inc, OU = www.digicert.com, CN = Thawte TLS RSA CA G1 2431104 C = BE , O = GlobalSign nv-sa, CN = GlobalSign Domain Validation CA - SHA256 - G2 2422131 C = BE, O = GlobalSign nv-sa, CN = AlphaSSL CA - SHA256 - G2 2310140 C = US, O = DigiCert Inc, CN = DigiCert SHA2 Secure Server CA 1791127 C = US, O = DigiCert Inc, OU = www.digicert.com, CN = Encryption Everywhere DV TLS CA - G1 1298054 C = GB, ST = Greater Manchester, L = Salford, O = COMODO CA Limited, CN = COMODO RSA Organization Validation Secure Server CA 1019337 C = US, O = DigiCert Inc, OU = www.digicert.com, CN = GeoTrust RSA CA 2018 853367 C = US, O = DigiCert Inc, CN = DigiCert ECC Secure Server CA 842994 C = US, ST = Someprovince, L = Sometown, O = none, OU = none, CN = localhost, emailAddress = webmaster @ localhost 828175 C = CH, L = Schaffhausen, O = Plesk, CN = Plesk, emailAddress=info@plesk.com 800601 C = US, O = DigiCert Inc, OU = www.digicert.com, CN = Thawte RSA CA 2018 736336 C = BE , O = GlobalSign nv-sa, CN = GlobalSign Organization Validation CA - SHA256 - G2 679798 C = FR, ST = Paris, L = Paris, O = Gandi, CN = Gandi Standard SSL CA 2 648187 OU = Default Web server, CN = www.example.com, emailAddress=postmaster@example.com 572342 C = -, ST = SomeState, L = SomeCity, O = SomeOrganization, OU = S omeOrganizationalUnit, CN = server.ab-archive.net, emailAddress=root@server.ab-archive.net 546456 C = DE, ST = Bayern, L = Muenchen, O = ispgateway, CN = webserver.ispgateway.de, emailAddress = hostmaster@ispgateway.de 501592 C = US, ST = Virginia, L = Herndon, O = Parallels, OU = Parallels Panel, CN = Parallels Panel, emailAddress=info@parallels.com 501093 C = US, ST = California, O = DreamHost, CN = sni.dreamhost.com 480,468 C = CN, O = TrustAsia Technologies, Inc., OU = Domain Validated SSL, CN = TrustAsia TLS RSA CA 468190 C = BE, O = GlobalSign nv-sa, CN = GlobalSign CloudSSL CA - SHA256 - G3 464242 C = -, ST = SomeState, L = SomeCity, O = SomeOrganization, OU = SomeOrganizationalUnit, CN = localhost.localdomain, emailAddress=root@localhost.localdomain 455067 C = PL, O = home.pl SA, CN = Certyfikat SSL 445550 C = US, O = DigiCert Inc, OU = www.digicert.com, CN = Encryption Everywhere DV TLS CA - G2 417062 C = PL, O = Unizeto Technologies SA, OU = Certum Certification Authority, CN = Certum Domain Validation CA SHA2 416966 C = JP, ST = Tokyo, L = Chiyoda-ku, O = G ehirn Inc., CN = Gehirn Managed Certification Authority - RSA DV 384480 C = IT, ST = Bergamo, L = Ponte San Pietro, O = Actalis SpA / 03358520967, CN = Actalis Organization Validated Server CA G2 368708 C = JP, ST = OSAKA, L = OSAKA, O = SecureCore, CN = SecureCore RSA DV CA 353716 C = US, O = DigiCert Inc, OU = www.digicert.com, CN = RapidSSL TLS RSA CA G1 343034 C = US, O = DigiCert Inc , CN = DigiCert Global CA G2 278170 C = PL, O = nazwa.pl sp. z oo, OU = http: //nazwa.pl, CN = nazwaSSL 267784 C = US, ST = Illinois, L = Chicago, O = Trustwave Holdings, Inc., CN = Trustwave Organization Validation SHA256 CA, Level 1, emailAddress = ca@trustwave.com 251987 C = IT, ST = Bergamo, L = Ponte San Pietro, O = Actalis SpA / 03358520967, CN = Actalis Domain Validation Server CA G2 244273 C = JP, O = Cybertrust Japan Co., Ltd., CN = Cybertrust Japan Public CA G3 236 608 C = US, ST = Washington, L = Seattle, O = Odin, OU = Plesk, CN = Plesk, emailAddress=info@plesk.com 228615 C = GB, ST = Greater Manchester, L = Salford, O = Sectigo Limited, CN = Sectigo RSA Organization Validation Secure Server CA 202529 C = US, O = DigiCert Inc, OU = www.digicert.com, CN = GeoTrust TLS RSA CA G1 184627 C = US, ST = MI , L = Ann Arbor, O = Internet2, OU = InCommon, CN = InCommon RSA Server CA 184276 C = US, O = Entrust, Inc., OU = See www.entrust.net/legal-terms , OU = © 2012 Entrust , Inc. - for authorized use only, CN = Entrust Certification Authority - L1K 177315 C = NL, ST = Noord-Holland, L = Amsterdam, O = TERENA, CN = TERENA SSL CA 3 171469 C = LV, L = Riga, O = GoGetSSL , CN = GoGetSSL RSA DV CA 168933 C = US, O = GeoTrust Inc., CN = RapidSSL SHA256 CA 150830 C = RU, ST = Moscow, L = Moscow, O = Odin, OU = Odin Automation, CN = odin.com , emailAddress=webmaster@odin.com 122399 C = JP, O = Japan Registry Services Co., Ltd., CN = JPRS Domain Validation Authority - G2 118029 C = GB, ST = Greater Manchester, L = Salford, O = Sectigo Limited , CN = Sectigo ECC Domain Validation Secure Server CA 109435 C = GB, ST = Berkshire, L = Newbury, O = My Company Ltd 108309 C = US, ST = Washington, L = Redmond, O = Microsoft Corporation, OU = Microsoft IT , CN = Microsoft IT TLS CA 2 108016 C = US, O = GeoTrust Inc., CN = RapidSSL SHA256 CA - G3 107719 C = -, ST = SomeState, L = SomeCity, O = SomeOrganization, OU = SomeOrganizationalUnit, CN = ns546485.ip-158-69-252.net, emailAddress=root@ns546485.ip-158-69-252.net 106164 C = US, ST = DE, L = Wilmington, O = Corporation Se rvice Company, CN = Trusted Secure Certificate Authority DV 104634 CN = localhost

In the zgrab scheme, this is .data.tls.server_certificates.certificate.parsed.issuer_dn , the results can be reproduced using

zcat 2019-08-01-ssl-*.gz | parallel --pipe jq -r .data.tls.server_certificates.certificate.parsed.issuer_dn | sort | uniq -c zcat 2019-08-01-ssl-*.gz | parallel --pipe jq -r .data.tls.server_certificates.certificate.parsed.issuer_dn | sort | uniq -c zcat 2019-08-01-ssl-*.gz | parallel --pipe jq -r .data.tls.server_certificates.certificate.parsed.issuer_dn | sort | uniq -c

zcat 2019-08-01-ssl-*.gz | parallel --pipe jq -r .data.tls.server_certificates.certificate.parsed.issuer_dn | sort | uniq -c zcat 2019-08-01-ssl-*.gz | parallel --pipe jq -r .data.tls.server_certificates.certificate.parsed.issuer_dn | sort | uniq -c zcat 2019-08-01-ssl-*.gz | parallel --pipe jq -r .data.tls.server_certificates.certificate.parsed.issuer_dn | sort | uniq -c

Let's Encrypt certificates are valid for three months, stimulating a regular update cycle, but today many ancient security methods remain on the Internet.

Nearly three million domains with RC4 or 3DES

Of the 160 million compounds, more than 150 million used elliptic curves, the Diffie-Hellman protocol, and AES. The next most popular cipher suite was RSA with RC4, and nearly 1.8% of connections used RC4 or 3DES , and even DES on six domains! (

zcat 2019-08-01-ssl-*.gz | parallel --pipe jq -r .data.tls.server_hello.cipher_suite.name | sort | uniq -c zcat 2019-08-01-ssl-*.gz | parallel --pipe jq -r .data.tls.server_hello.cipher_suite.name | sort | uniq -c

)

  120457325 TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
 16750820 TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
 13808304 TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA
 2393679 TLS_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA
 1768423 TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA
 1653084 TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA
 1397638 TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA
 373383 TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA
 157929 TLS_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA
 17663 TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA
 4041 TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA
 2794 TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA
 458 TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA
 205 TLS_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_MD5
 115 TLS_DH_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA
 28 unknown
 6 TLS_RSA_WITH_DES_CBC_SHA
 1 TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384

Please note that the latest Chrome cannot accept RC4 , but accepts 3DES (thanks, badssl.com !)

Over four million domains with legacy TLS

By default, the TLS package in go does not use TLS 1.3 - it seems that the data set was collected with zgrab, which does not use TLS 1.3 (it is probably better to update it for the next launches). The servers of most domains used TLS 1.2, but more than four million work on TLS 1.0 (

zcat 2019-08-01-ssl-*.gz | parallel --pipe jq -r .data.tls.server_hello.version.name | sort | uniq -c zcat 2019-08-01-ssl-*.gz | parallel --pipe jq -r .data.tls.server_hello.version.name | sort | uniq -c

  154500876 TLSv1.2
 4263887 TLSv1.0
 19352 TLSv1.1
 1781 SSLv3

TLS 1.0 is still allowed in Chrome.

Hundreds of thousands of domain certificates expire after 2099

In accordance with Best Encrypt’s best practices , the lifetime of SSL certificates should be 90 days.

But best practices do not prohibit alternative practices !

Photo by Rick Goldwasser from Flagstaff, Arizona, USA [ CC BY 2.0 ], via Wikimedia Commons

In the wild, there are certificates with a millennium of life, like these spinous pines.

Thousands of certificates expire after 3000

More than 3,000 certificates do not expire in this millennium. Over 8,000 certificates expire after 2200. More than 200,000 certificates - after 2100 (more than 1.5 million - only in the 2040s!)

So, in one year 2117, more than 100,000 certificates expire, and in 3017, more than a thousand. Perhaps it was in 2017 that something inspired confidence in long-lived certificates?

Millions of certificates have expired

Nearly 1.6 million domains have recently expired a certificate (in July, the month of scanning). Nearly 3.7 million domains expired in 2019. Over 9.6 million domains work with a certificate that expired in the 2010s!