this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2026
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Astonishingly, the private keys were 4, 56, 66, 115, 155, 156, 230, 237.

exploiting compromised certificates requires an active adversary-in-the-middle attack, meaning the attacker must act as a proxy between two TLS parties and receive encrypted traffic, decrypt it, reencrypt it, and send it to the other party. Such capabilities, in some cases, are usually limited to only the most well-resourced attackers. People with control of a local network—at a coffee shop, university, or other organization—face much less of a challenge.

https://emudhra.we-have-a-problem.com/

Xkcd 221: int getRandomNumber() { return 4; // chosen by fair dice roll. guaranteed to be random. }

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[–] thisbenzingring@lemmy.today 269 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (6 children)

I think that this isn't really getting the right attention, about what a massive WTF situation this is...

its a 384 bit certificate and this is the private key

00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:
00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:
00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:
00:00:04

that is just fucking NUTS

[–] Fmstrat@lemmy.world 43 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

And 8 of them no less. The guess of this being test code leaking into prod is likely, but security focused companies need consequences for stuff like this. That being said:

[–] dankm@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 days ago

Looks like consequences to me...

[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 113 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Phew to think how close it is to my private key

[–] Aatube@lemmy.dbzer0.com 59 points 2 days ago (1 children)

that’s a very long way to spell the random number 4

[–] miadidi@lemmy.world 41 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] victorz@lemmy.world 17 points 2 days ago

That kind of removes the bit size and hides it in assumption.

[–] SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone 22 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It's like winning the lottery

Winning the lottery is (ballpark) 1 in 10^9, so generating a key below a million is like winning 11 lotteries in a row, while buying 1 ticket in each.

They wouldn't know how you'd done it, but I think you'd be arrested, with valid probable cause.

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 10 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)
4E:65:76:65:72:20:67:6F:6E:6E:61:20:67:69:76:
65:20:79:6F:75:20:75:70:20:4E:65:76:65:72:20:
67:6F:6E:6E:61:20:6C:65:74:20:79:6F:75:20:64:
6F:77:6E

is much more secure.

[–] not@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 2 days ago (3 children)

LOL, People are never gonna give this up.

[–] modus@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm too lazy to do the math. Does that translate to the URL?

[–] not@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 day ago

No, it is a string of text. "Never gonna give you up never gonna let you down"

[–] Localhorst86@feddit.org 2 points 1 day ago

ROFL, People are never gonna let this down.

[–] sonoro@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

"Never gonna give you up never gonna let you down "

[–] ramble81@lemmy.zip 7 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I mean, yes, it’s entirely possible and within the realm of probability of getting that as a key. But realistically it’s very, very, fucking unlikely.

[–] Kraiden@piefed.social 10 points 2 days ago

Ye, I'd struggle to believe ONE key getting generated like that, but 8 points to pure incompetence

[–] Toribor@corndog.social 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Isn't every key equally unlikely?

[–] ramble81@lemmy.zip 9 points 1 day ago

Yes, be in is why having 8 of them total in the 2 digit range (I.e only using up to 6 bits of 384-bits) just screams incompetence of a hand generated key.