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The problem is in supplying the CA certificate(s) used to verify the web-of-trust. Web browsers are pre-loaded with a huge number of trusted CA certificates. Pre-loading and maintaining that list on an embedded microcontroller is non-trivial. Not to mention what happens when a CA root is compromised or goes rogue, you have to deal with the revocation process.

Your link mentions global_ca_store but provides no guidance on how to effectively populate it. That's the problem.

Interestingly, providing a non-Tivo-ized system, e.g. one that allows connection to an arbitrary cloud server, requires even more work than just hardcoding in "your" CA certificates.

None of this is insurmountable, but it leaves devs pining for a pre-HTTPS world where you can just do a DNS lookup and send "GET / HTTP/1.0" and not have to worry about all the attack vectors that HTTPS protects against, as well as the ones that HTTPS opens you up to.



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