Netscape 4.51
AssessPlatforms
An old web browser that shipped early SSL root certificates.
Why it's here
Placed in Assess: 1 article(s) of evidence from 1 source(s), led by security coverage, with 1 in the last 30 days. Confidence 24%. Low accumulated evidence, so it defaults conservatively pending more signal.
Evidence (1)
- 7Hacker News·9/8/2026securityFactoring 1990s RSA keys from an old certificate authority
A researcher factored 512-bit RSA public keys from E-Certify, a defunct certificate authority whose roots were bundled with Netscape 4.51 in 1999. Using CADO-NFS on a desktop machine, he recovered the private keys and demonstrated that certificates could still be issued in an old Netscape environment. The work highlights how weak early Web PKI keys can be broken today and how far modern cryptographic standards have moved beyond 512-bit RSA.