SHA-256 Rollout

Jul 18, 2020

Introduction

SHA-2 consists of a family of cryptographic hashing algorithms developed in part by NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) to replace the aging SHA-1 hashing algorithm which may have mathematical weaknesses.

GlobalSign, in our role as your security partner, supported the deprecation of SHA-1 and the transition to SHA-256, the most widely supported hashing algorithm within the SHA-2 family. 

This article defines the important milestones for the introduction of SHA-256 Certificates and the depreciation of SHA-1 Certificates.

Important dates for SHA-1 deprecation:

As of January 16, 2015, CAs will be forbidden to issue SHA-1 Certificates that expire past December 31, 2016. Microsoft, Google, and Mozilla will start rolling out updates to stop trusting SHA-1 SSL Certificates shortly after 1 January 2017. These browsers will show an untrusted warning message to website visitors. 

Microsoft's Timeline:

Date
Action
January 1, 2016 Microsoft will cease trusting Code Signing Certificates using SHA-1
January 1, 2017 Microsoft will cease trusting SSL Certificates using SHA-1
February 14, 2017 Microsoft will roll out their patches to disable trust to http://aka.ms/sha1


Google's Timeline:

Google's Chrome/Chromium browser will behave differently depending on the version and the expiration date of the SSL Certificate. Note that SHA-1 SSL Certificates that are valid past 1/1/2017 will show as untrusted in Chromium 41.  Based on past release cycles, we expect Chrome 41 to be available 10 February 2015. Google is planning to remove support for SHA-1 Certificates in Chrome 56, which will be released to the stable channel around end of January 2017
 

Certificate Expiration Date
Chromium 39
Nov 18, 2014
Chromium 40
Dec 30, 2014
Chromium 41
Feb 10, 2015
After
January 1, 2016
   
After
June 06, 2016
After
January 01, 2017

 

Date
Action
January 31, 2017 Google will remove support for SHA-1 Certificates in Chrome 56
January 1, 2019 Enable SHA-1 For Local Anchors Policy will be removed in the first Chrome release


Mozilla's Timeline:

Mozilla's timeline is also based primarily around Certificate expiration dates and is more in line with Microsoft's timeline. Note that after January 01, 2017, Firefox will not trust any SHA-1 Certificate. Also, Firefox 51 will be released to enable the deprecation of SHA-1 SSL Certificates. 

The warnings in the chart below will begin appearing in Firefox versions released in early 2015.

Certificate
Result in Firefox
Issued After
January 1, 2016
"Untrusted Connection"
Expires After
January 01, 2017
Warning displayed.  

Additional Resources

CA Security Council:
https://casecurity.org/2014/01/30/why-we-need-to-move-to-sha-2/
https://casecurity.org/2013/12/16/sha-1-deprecation-on-to-sha-2/

SHA-256 support in Windows:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/pki/archive/2010/09/30/sha2-and-windows.aspx

Microsoft Root Embedding Program Requirements:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/31633.microsoft-trusted-root-program-requirements.aspx

Windows Enforcement of SHA-1 Certificates:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/32288.windows-enforcement-of-sha1-certificates.aspx

Google - Gradually Sunsetting SHA-1:
http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/gradually-sunsetting-sha-1.html

Google Chrome Releases:
http://googlechromereleases.blogspot.com/

Google - Removal of support for SHA-1 Certificates:https://security.googleblog.com/2016/11/sha-1-certificates-in-chrome.html
Mozilla - Phasing Out Certificates with SHA-1 based Signature Algorithms:https://blog.mozilla.org/security/2014/09/23/phasing-out-certificates-with-sha-1-based-signature-algorithms/

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