GoDaddy revokes nearly 9,000 SSL certificates issued without proper validation

GoDaddy, one of the world's largest domain registrars and certificate authorities, revoked almost 9,000 SSL certificates this week after it learned that its domain validation system has had a serious bug for the past five months.

The bug was the result of a routine code change made on July 29 to the system used to validate domain ownership before a certificate is issued. As a result, the system might have validated some domains when it shouldn't have, opening the possibility of abuse.

Industry rules call for certificate authorities (CAs) to check if the person requesting a certificate for a domain has control over that domain. This can be done in a variety of ways, including by asking the applicant to make an agreed-upon change to the website using that domain.

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