Source URL: https://blog.transparency.dev/postgresql-support-for-certificate-transparency-logs-released
Source: Hacker News
Title: PostgreSQL Support for Certificate Transparency Logs Now Available
Feedly Summary: Comments
AI Summary and Description: Yes
Summary: The recent integration of PostgreSQL as a storage backend for the Trillian certificate transparency ecosystem enhances data integrity and reliability for log operators. This shift, motivated by previous log failures, allows for a more robust and extensible architecture and provides a notable improvement for certificate transparency management within the broader cloud computing domain.
Detailed Description: The text presents significant developments in the Trillian project regarding its support for PostgreSQL, enhancing the efficacy of certificate transparency logs. This change is crucial for security professionals working with certificate management and infrastructure reliability.
– **Trillian Update**: Trillian, an open-source project central to the certificate transparency system, now supports PostgreSQL. This means Trillian can offer more flexible storage options to log operators.
– **Background**: Originally, Trillian supported Google’s Cloud Spanner and MySQL. The choice of backend is critical for data integrity and reliability, especially concerning Certificate Transparency.
– **Motivation for Change**:
– Sectigo, a public Certificate Authority (CA), transitioned to PostgreSQL after a corruption incident caused by disk space exhaustion in their previous MariaDB setup.
– PostgreSQL’s features, such as Write-ahead Logging (WAL) and compliance with ACID principles, make it a stronger candidate for ensuring data integrity in transparency logs, an essential requirement for maintaining secure and reliable certificate issuance.
– **Expertise Leveraged**: The Sectigo team’s experience with PostgreSQL was beneficial in optimizing Trillian’s functionality, particularly in adapting its certificate log ingestion processes to cope with the rapid growth of WebPKI issuance rates.
– **Community Collaboration**: The text emphasizes the importance of open-source collaboration, highlighting how Sectigo worked with Google’s TrustFabric team to integrate and test improvements to Trillian. This collaboration enhances the project’s credibility and ensures that it meets community needs.
– **Getting Started**: A brief guide is offered for users interested in utilizing PostgreSQL with Trillian, indicating the need to install the latest versions, set up PostgreSQL, and access deployment examples.
– **Future Developments**: Sectigo is planning to establish development and production logs (code-named Elephant), showing a commitment to advancing the tool and keeping the community updated.
In conclusion, the integration of PostgreSQL into the Trillian ecosystem not only optimizes the management of certificate transparency logs but also reflects a broader trend of enhancing security and compliance measures within the software infrastructure landscape. Security professionals should focus on these developments to ensure robust management of certificate transparency in their operations.