Older Android phones will start failing on some secure websites in 2021

Older Android phones will start failing on some secure websites in 2021

They may not be cool, and they're certainly not up to date, but there are millions of old Android smartphones out there running 2016's Android 7.1 Nougat or earlier. On Sep. 1, 2021, however, those phones will start failing when they try to connect with websites secured by Let's Encrypt Secure-Socket Layer (SSL)/Transport Layer Security (TLS) certificates.


Networking



Let's Encrypt is the enormously popular, free open-source certificate authority (CA). Thanks to its service, over a billion websites have been secured. It's worked well, but Let's Encrypt's original root certificate, which relied on a cross-signature from IdenTrust, "DST Root X3," will expire on Sept. 1, 2021.


With most operating systems, this wouldn't be a problem. Let's Encrypt now has its own root certificate, ISRG Root X1, and most operating systems and browsers can work with it. Alas, that's not the case with Android.


It's not like that Android doesn't get updated often enough by vendors is news to anyone. After all, any Android phone running Android 6 or earlier hasn't been getting any security updates since earlier this year. But, users, as the tens of millions still running Windows 7 show, ..

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