Sebastian N. Peters

Sebastian N. Peters

Sebastian N. Peters has been an IT security researcher at Fraunhofer AISEC since 2021, after completing master's degrees in electrical engineering and information technology and in economics at RWTH Aachen University. He is doing his doctorate at the Technical University of Munich on industrial cyber security with a focus on authentication, trust establishment, protocol security and critical infrastructure.
  • Joined: 12. February 2025
  • Articles: 2

Parsing X.509 Certificates: How Secure Are TLS Libraries?

Digital certificates like X.509 are essential for secure internet communication by enabling authentication and data integrity. However, differences in how they are parsed by various TLS libraries can introduce security risks. A recent study by Fraunhofer AISEC analyzed six widely used X.509 parsers with real-world certificates. The findings reveal inconsistencies that could impact security-critical applications. In this article, we summarize the key results and explain why companies need to scrutinize their cryptographic libraries.