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An observation about client certificates

Sean Conner sean at conman.org

Mon May 11 01:18:21 BST 2020

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  I know logging isn't popular here, but I still do it anyway, in order totrack down issues that might come up, either bugs in the server.  Early on,I decided also log certificates that might be used to hit the "/private"directory on my server.  I'm seeing a bit more activity there, which isnice, the latest one being:

remote=---.---.---.--- status=20 request="gemini://gemini.conman.org/private/" bytes=213 subject="/CN=AV-98 cert test" issuer="/CN=AV-98 cert test"

  But the following requests had me seriously puzzled:

remote=---.---.---.--- status=20 request="gemini://gemini.conman.org/private/" bytes=213 subject="" issuer=""remote=---.---.---.--- status=20 request="gemini://gemini.conman.org/private/mondrian.gif" bytes=3082 subject="" issuer=""

  After quite a bit of testing and thinking on this, I can only concludethat whomever sent this request did have a certificate, but the certificatedid not include the issuer or subject fields.  As I stated, I accept anycertificate (as long as the dates are valid).  I did not expect acertificate sans issuer/subject could be valid as well.  Perhaps it's not, Idon't actually know, but kudos to the requestor.  I was not expecting this.

  -spc