OCSP Service Has Reached End of Life

46 pfexec 1 9/14/2025, 7:34:48 PM letsencrypt.org ↗

Comments (1)

GauntletWizard · 24m ago
Ocsp has always represented a terrible design. If clients require it, then it becomes just a override on the not after date included in the certificate, that requires online access to the cert server. If it is not required, then it is useless, because blocking the ocsp responses is well within the capabilities of any man in the middle attack, and makes the servers themselves DDOS attack targets.

The alternative to the privacy nightmare is ocsp stapling, which has the first problem once again - it adds complexity to the protocol just to add an override of the not after attribute, when the not after attribute could be updated just as easily with the original protocol, reissuing the certificate. It was a Band-Aid on the highly manual process of certain issuance that once dominated the space.

Good riddance to ocsp, I for one will not miss it.