If you have been following the Symantec\/Google (and Mozilla) saga you likely know two things: it has been very confusing, and if you use Symantec certificates (or any of its other brands – RapidSSL, Thawte, or GeoTrust) you are going to need to replace your certificates at some point.<\/p>\n
Google announced its final plan last week – which will affect existing certificates starting April 2018<\/strong>. However, we have seen that some users are still confused if this is accurate. This post is here to set the record straight. <\/span><\/p>\n Google\u2019s previous <\/em>and now outdated proposal would have had a large number of Symantec certificates becoming invalid on August 8th, 2017 – as in, a few days from now. This is no longer applicable – it\u2019s not happening.<\/strong><\/p>\n Instead, Google opted to push back any action involving existing certificates until April 2018 (in the \u201cStable\u201d version of Chrome – which most end users use. See our note below on pre-release versions). To learn about Google\u2019s final proposal, which you should be planning your changes around, please read this dedicated post<\/a>.<\/p>\n Some have been concerned that the lack of an official post on Google\u2019s Security Blog<\/a> means it is unclear what plan is being put into action.<\/p>\n We understand the value of a Professional & Official Post<\/em> – especially when you are about to convince your organization that they don\u2019t need to worry about certificate errors in 4 days.<\/p>\n But since that does not exist, we are hoping this post can be the next best thing. We are going to provide citations and everything to give you (and your coworkers) all the reassurance needed to enjoy your weekends.<\/p>\n This was the post that superseded previous plans and is Google\u2019s final and current dates for removing trust for existing certificates.<\/p>\n We will say it again: it starts April 2018.We will again plug our summary of Chrome\u2019s final plan of action<\/a> – read this if you want to see all the relevant dates and changes.<\/li>\n <\/p>\n Hopefully, this can set the record straight and clear up any confusion people may have had. It’s April 2018, not August 2017. Capisce?<\/p>\n Google distributes four versions of Chrome: \u201cStable,\u201d \u201cBeta,\u201d \u201cDev,\u201d and \u201cCanary.\u201d It refers to these as its \u2018channels.\u2019<\/p>\n The Stable channel is the version for the general public. This is the fully-tested, \u2018standard\u2019 version that is on hundreds of millions of computers.<\/p>\n The other three versions are all pre-release versions that allow you to test upcoming versions of Chrome before they are finalized. That does not mean these are some sort of unstable, crazy-looking alternatives. For the most part, the other three Chrome channels look and feel the same and are fairly usable.<\/p>\n Each channel is \u2018rougher\u2019 than the last – meaning it has been tested less and has more bugs. Each Chrome version passes through the channels – starting at Canary, usually months in advance – and makes its way to Stable when it is ready for prime time.<\/p>\n The majority of your website\u2019s customers and visitors will be using Stable, however, some small percentage will <\/em>be on one of the other channels and will see Symantec certificates become untrusted earlier<\/strong>.<\/p>\n So, if you can, you should try to replace affected certificates early in order to avoid inconveniencing this small portion of users.<\/p>\n Here is an approximate <\/strong>breakdown of when Chrome versions 66 and 70, the two versions which will have changes for Symantec certificates, release for each channel. The exact dates may change slightly due to delays or distribution:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Certificates Affected:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Any Symantec certificates issued before June 1st, 2016<\/td>\n <\/p>\n Certificates Affected:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n ALL Symantec certificates issued from their current roots (which will be everything issued before December 1st, 2017).<\/td>\n\n
A Note On \u201cBeta\u201d and \u201cCanary\u201d<\/h2>\n
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\n <\/td>\n Stable<\/strong><\/td>\n Beta<\/td>\n Canary<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Chrome 66<\/strong><\/p>\n April 17, 2018<\/td>\n March 15, 2018<\/td>\n Jan 19, 2018<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Chrome 70<\/strong><\/p>\n Oct 23, 2018<\/td>\n Sept 13, 2018<\/td>\n July 31, 2018<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n