[cabfpub] Definition of "Browser" in the Bylaws

Sigbjørn Vik sigbjorn at opera.com
Fri Oct 11 01:39:28 MST 2013


On 10.10.2013 22:40, Tom Albertson wrote:

 > Trust Anchor Managers (TAMs): Authorities who manage a repository of
 > trusted Root CA Certificates.

A strict reading of this excludes Opera and Google. Both supply root 
stores when needed, but do not maintain them independently. Google 
maintains an EV list though, but I will let Google answer for themselves.

> The one problem here is the relatively recent situation with Opera
> adopting the Google trusted root store, and I feel obligated to ask:
> will Opera in fact maintain independent decision-making with respect to
> the root store for Opera users?  I know Opera will maintain their legacy
> root program for legacy version of their browser, but I haven’t heard
> (can’t recall from Turkey) the status of the program for current and
> future versions.  Sig, can you confirm?

Details of our new root store plans can be found on 
http://my.opera.com/rootstore/blog/2013/10/02/root-store-program-by-opera
In most cases we will use the OS root store (and Chromium EV list), but 
we will also supply an online root store (based on NSS). We will 
maintain the possibility to override the root stores we use, but we hope 
we will not need to use it.

I think good definitions are good to have, and using the same 
definitions as elsewhere is a bonus. The discussion about voting rights 
is also important. To be quite honest, some of the CABForum discussions 
are no longer as interesting to Opera, as we are no longer a root store 
operator. There are still discussions in the CABForum which are 
interesting to non-root store maintaining browsers though. To take two 
recent examples, discussion about what the green bar should mean in 
browsers, and browser UI discussions in ballot 89.

We do not think maintaining a root store should be a requirement for 
joining the CABForum, we think the group should be open for anyone who 
has a stake in internet security. For Opera's position on the CABForum 
organization, see 
http://my.opera.com/securitygroup/blog/2012/03/30/operas-cabforum-reorganization-position-paper

-- 
Sigbjørn Vik
Opera Software


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