🛡️ Security

X.509 Certificate

The standard format for public-key certificates used by TLS, IPsec, and code signing. It binds a public key to an identity, is signed by a certificate authority, and is encoded in ASN.1, which is why parsing it safely is a recurring security problem.

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Why VPN Certificate Parsing Is Pre-Authentication Attack Surface

A VPN gateway must decode a peer's certificate before it can trust the peer. That ordering makes the ASN.1 parser reachable by anyone on the internet, and it is where two classic bug types live.

intermediate 6 min read

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