Those that have been happy to receive Google’s support for the 1.3 version of TLS might be in for a bumpy ride, as recent reports claim that not all security providers are compatible with it. Google took the launch opportunity of Chrome 56 and implemented its TLS 1.3 support, which seemed perfectly fine at the time. After the initial launch for macOS and Linux, it made its way to all platforms by the time January had ended. From Macs to PCs and mobile devices, everyone was getting the TSL update.
Problems have started to rise now, as pointed out by the bug analysis report made by Chromium. It would seem that TSL 1.3 is a bit too much for Blue Coat 6.5 from Symantec, which has led to a series of chain complications.
Public schools in Maryland have been experiencing the negative effects of this implementation first hand. There are 50 thousand Chromebooks running in that area and close to a third of it has begun to show signs that something is wrong, says an IT administrator on location. According to him, the Chromebooks would just alternate between the login screen and a screen that said “Network not available”. On top of the 50 thousand Chromebooks, there have also been, apparently, over 40 thousand PCs that joined in the symptom display.
Google has so far put the blame on Blue Coat, through its engineer David Benjamin. According to him, Google did they job and instructed Blue Coat in regards to updating and preparing for the implementation of TSL 1.3. That being said, Blue Coat did not manage to achieve this goal thus causing these issues at pretty large scales.
Both Symantec and Google have since reported that they are working on this issue, to figure out the cause and repair the damage it has done respectively.
Idiots… this is clearly Symantec’s fault. I work for a state agency and all Chrome browsers are borked.