In 2021, many websites will stop working on older versions of Android

Certificate authority Let's Encrypt has warned that starting in 2021, smartphones running Android 7.1.1 Nougat and below will no longer trust certificates issued by the group. In other words, devices running Android 7.1 or lower will have problems accessing many websites, and may not load at all.

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Let's Encrypt is one of the world's leading certificate authorities, with nearly 30% of web domains using digital certificates. As early as 2015, the agency applied for its own root certificate ISRG Root X1. The certificate has been cross-signed with IdenTrust's root certificate "DST Root X3" and is used by multiple browsers and almost all major operating systems.

Now, the cooperation between Let's Encrypt and IdenTrust will expire on September 1, 2021, and the group does not plan to sign a new agreement. Although the agreement does not expire until September next year, Let's Encrypt will stop cross-signing by default starting January 11, 2021. Websites can still generate cross-signed certificates before September 2021.

This means that any browsers and operating systems that don't have the Let's Encrypt root certificate will no longer be able to work with websites and services that use the group's certificates.

Let's Encrypt pointed out that more than 33.8% of Android users are running versions lower than 7.1.1. In response, they recommend that affected users install the Firefox browser, which uses its own certificate store and includes the ISRG root.

This article is reproduced from OSCHINA.

In this article, many websites will not work on older versions of Android in 2021.

Article URL: https://www.oschina.net/news/120210/android-encryption-certs