Checking for Compromised Private Keys has Never Been Easier
Posted: Fri, 28 June 2024 | permalink | No comments
As regular readers would know, since I never stop banging on about it, I run Pwnedkeys, a service which finds and collates private keys which have been disclosed or are otherwise compromised. Until now, the only way to check if a key is compromised has been to use the Pwnedkeys API, which is not necessarily trivial for everyone.
Starting today, that’s changing.
The next phase of Pwnedkeys is to start offering more user-friendly tools for checking whether keys being used are compromised.
These will typically be web-based or command-line tools intended to answer the question “is the key in this (certificate, CSR, authorized_keys file, TLS connection, email, etc) known to Pwnedkeys to have been compromised?”.
Opening the Toolbox
Available right now are the first web-based key checking tools in this arsenal. These tools allow you to:
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Check the key in a PEM-format X509 data structure (such as a CSR or certificate);
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Check the keys in an
authorized_keysfile you upload; and -
Check the SSH keys used by a user at any one of a number of widely-used code-hosting sites.
Further planned tools include “live” checking of the certificates presented in TLS connections (for HTTPS, etc), SSH host keys, command-line utilities for checking local authorized_keys files, and many other goodies.
If You Are Intrigued By My Ideas…
… and wish to subscribe to my newsletter, now you can!
I’m not going to be blogging every little update to Pwnedkeys, because that would probably get a bit tedious for readers who aren’t as intrigued by compromised keys as I am. Instead, I’ll be posting every little update in the Pwnedkeys newsletter. So, if you want to keep up-to-date with the latest and greatest news and information, subscribe to the newsletter.
Supporting Pwnedkeys
All this work I’m doing on my own time, and I’m paying for the infrastructure from my own pocket. If you’ve got a few dollars to spare, I’d really appreciate it if you bought me a refreshing beverage. It helps keep the lights on here at Pwnedkeys Global HQ.
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