Evolution of SSL/TLS Indicators and Warnings in Web Browsers

KRAUS, Lydia, Martin UKROP, Václav MATYÁŠ and Tobias FIEBIG. Evolution of SSL/TLS Indicators and Warnings in Web Browsers. In Anderson, J., Stajano, F., Christianson, B., Matyáš, V. 27th International Workshop on Security Protocols (SPW 2019). Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, 2020, p. 267-280. ISBN 978-3-030-57042-2. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57043-9_25.

Basic information

• Original name: Evolution of SSL/TLS Indicators and Warnings in Web Browsers
• Authors: KRAUS, Lydia (276 Germany, guarantor, belonging to the institution), Martin UKROP (703 Slovakia, belonging to the institution), Václav MATYÁŠ (203 Czech Republic, belonging to the institution) and Tobias FIEBIG (276 Germany).
• Edition: Switzerland, 27th International Workshop on Security Protocols (SPW 2019), p. 267-280, 14 pp. 2020.
• Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Proceedings paper
• Field of Study: 10201 Computer sciences, information science, bioinformatics
• Country of publisher: Germany
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• Publication form: printed version "print"
• WWW: Details about the publication
• Impact factor: Impact factor: 0.402 in 2005
• RIV identification code: RIV/00216224:14330/20:00115186
• Organization unit: Faculty of Informatics
• ISBN: 978-3-030-57042-2
• ISSN: 0302-9743
• Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57043-9_25
• Keywords in English: TLS; SSL; browser; indicator; warning
• Tags: International impact, Reviewed

Abstract

The creation of the World Wide Web (WWW) in the early 1990’s finally made the Internet accessible to a wider part of the population. With this increase in users, security became more important. To address confidentiality and integrity requirements on the web, Netscape—by then a major web browser vendor—presented the Secure Socket Layer (SSL), later versions of which were renamed to Transport Layer Security (TLS). In turn, this necessitated the introduction of both security indicators in browsers to inform users about the TLS connection state and also of warnings to inform users about potential errors in the TLS connection to a website. Looking at the evolution of indicators and warnings, we find that the qualitative data on security indicators and warnings, i.e., screen shots of different browsers over time is inconsistent. Hence, in this paper we outline our methodology for collecting a comprehensive data set of web browser security indicators and warnings, which will enable researchers to better understand how security indicators and TLS warnings in web browsers evolved over time.