Let’s Encrypt Comes Up With Workaround for Abandonware Android Devices

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Let's Encrypt comes up with workaround for abandonware Android devices:

Things were touch-and-go for a while, but it looks like Let's Encrypt's transition to a standalone certificate authority (CA) isn't going to break a ton of old Android phones. This was a serious concern earlier due to an expiring root certificate, but Let's Encrypt has come up with a workaround.

[...] Yesterday, Let's Encrypt announced it had found a solution that will let those old Android phones keep ticking, and the solution is to just... keep using the expired certificate from IdenTrust? Let's Encrypt says "IdenTrust has agreed to issue a 3-year cross-sign for our ISRG Root X1 from their DST Root CA X3. The new cross-sign will be somewhat novel because it extends beyond the expiration of DST Root CA X3. This solution works because Android intentionally does not enforce the expiration dates of certificates used as trust anchors. ISRG and IdenTrust reached out to our auditors and root programs to review this plan and ensure there weren't any compliance concerns."

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