[Python-Dev] Enable Hostname and Certificate Chain Validation (original) (raw)

Donald Stufft donald at stufft.io
Wed Jan 22 11:30:40 CET 2014

I would like to propose that a backwards incompatible change be made to Python to make verification of hostname and certificate chain the default instead of requiring it to be opt in.

Python 3.4 has made great strides in making it easier for applications to simply turn on these settings, however many people are not aware at all that they need to opt into this. Most assume that it will operate similarly to their browser, curl, wget, etc and validate by default and in the typical style of security related issues it will appear to work just fine however be grossly insecure.

In the real world “opt in security” typically translates to just plain old insecure for the bulk of applications/libraries. I believe that Python has a responsibility to do the right thing by default here and it is in the best position to do so. The alternative requires every Python developer who wants to access a secure resource to be educated on the fact that they need to flip some switch to do what most of them would expect.

Donald Stufft PGP: 0x6E3CBCE93372DCFA // 7C6B 7C5D 5E2B 6356 A926 F04F 6E3C BCE9 3372 DCFA

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