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EV Upgrader, created by VeriSign, is the first
technology to enable all Internet Explorer 7 on Windows XP client systems
to display all of the interface conventions offered by the new EV SSL
Certificates, such as the green address bar, organisation name, and
issuing certificate authority.
Benefits:
- More end users see the 'green bar' and security status bar
- Seamless and invisible to clients
- Effortless to install
Features:
- Automatic upgrade for all IE7 users running Windows XP
- Built into the VeriSign Secured™ Seal
- Provided at no charge with the purchase of a VeriSign EV SSL Certificate
EV Upgrader prompts
existing root update functionality in IE7 running on Windows XP for
visiting client systems. It enables an IE7 client to 'recognise' an
SSL Certificate's EV status. Without EV Upgrader many IE7 clients
on XP may not recognise an SSL certificate as EV. They will recognise
it as a valid SSL certificate, and will initiate an encrypted session.
However if the browser does not recognise the certificate as EV, the
browser will not display the characteristic green bar and security status
bar interface features.
Why wouldn’t an IE7 browser recognise EV?
A browser identifies an SSL Certificate as
authentic by checking to see if the certificate matches a valid SSL
root resident on the client machine. To make sure as many browser
clients as possible recognise the VeriSign EV SSL Certificate as authentic,
VeriSign has signed each EV Certificate with two roots: an EV root and
a traditional SSL root. However, an IE7 client browser may recognise
the traditional SSL root instead of the EV root simply because the automatic
search for a root will find the traditional root before finding the
EV root. EV Upgrader solves this problem.
IE7 is the first browser to implement the EV
enhancements. IE7 on Vista automatically updates the root store on a
weekly basis so these systems should always be able to recognise an
EV Certificate and display it accordingly. However IE7 clients on Windows
XP do not perform this automatic update. Instead if these systems do
not find a known root when they visit a Web server, they will automatically
go to the Microsoft root store to see if they can download a matching
root. Windows XP systems, developed before the EV standard was
created, will not have the EV root locally resident unless their root
storage has been manually updated or somehow the system has already
been triggered to update the local root store. This is where EV Upgrader
steps in to fill the gap.
How does EV Upgrader work?
The first time an IE7 client on Windows XP
visits a Web site with a VeriSign Secured Seal and EV Upgrader the client
browser will be triggered to contact a Microsoft root store service
and seamlessly install the VeriSign EV root. Once a client system has
a specific EV SSL root installed that client will experience 'green
bar' behaviour whenever connecting to a valid EV SSL Certificate on
that same root.
The VeriSign Secured Seal seamlessly and invisibly prompts existing
root update functionality in IE7 for Windows XP on visiting client systems
to enable 'green bar' functionality.
To make EV Upgrader as easy as possible to
use for site administrators, VeriSign built it right into the VeriSign
Secured Seal, which is included as part of an EV SSL Certificate purchase.
So, when a client visits a Web site with the VeriSign Secured Seal,
a hyperlink embedded in the seal will direct the client to visit a VeriSign
page secured with only an EV SSL root. Given that this server only offers
the EV root, it will trigger the client to go to the Microsoft update
site to find a matching root and download it to the client’s local root
storage. Once a client has downloaded the EV SSL root, the EV green
bar, security status bar and other enhancements can display. This update
process occurs almost instantaneously in the background and is completely
transparent to the end user. In most cases once this root update has
occurred the end user need only refresh their browser the green bar
will appear.
However, in the unusual case that an end user
has disabled the Phishing Filter in their browser, they won’t see the
green bar and other EV interface enhancements because their system will
not check the SSL Certificate in real time to verify that it is currently
valid.
Since EV Upgrader is built it right into the
VeriSign Secured Seal it only takes minutes to install. The VeriSign
Secured Seal on existing sites gains this functionality automatically.
Learn
more about the VeriSign Secured Seal or download
the seal for installation on your site.
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