This is a good idea, we'll ask about this.
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Currently waiting on an update from Akamai.
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Tested, and it seems to be a solution. Hope this can get fixed soon.
Since a771 is the CNAME of int-x3, we can test an OCSP request this way (as in the article OpenSSL: Manually verify a certificate against an OCSP):
openssl ocsp -issuer issuer.pem -VAfile issuer.pem -cert cert.pem -url http://a771.dscq.akamai.net/ -text -header HOST=ocsp.int-x3.letsencrypt.org
We get a connection error for this, as expected.
The response of dig to all the OCSP servers is:
ocsp.int-x1.letsencrypt.org.edgesuite.net. 20996 IN CNAME a1824.dscq.akamai.net.
ocsp.int-x2.letsencrypt.org.edgesuite.net. 21599 IN CNAME a1796.dscq.akamai.net.
ocsp.int-x3.letsencrypt.org.edgesuite.net. 6502 IN CNAME a771.dscq.akamai.net.
ocsp.int-x4.letsencrypt.org.edgesuite.net. 21600 IN CNAME a796.dscq.akamai.net.
Considering a771 is contaminated and assuming others are clean, replace it with a796, a1796, a1824 in the openssl command. And we can get valid responses like:
OCSP Response Data:
OCSP Response Status: successful (0x0)
...
Cert Status: good
...
WARNING: no nonce in response
Response verify OK
cert.pem: good
...
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Hope it can be faster, it’s been a month, our ios users are still affected
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For whatever it is worth, we are currently trying to get this <foo>.dscq.akamai.net name changed. We can only expect that this will be a temporary fix, but we investigating ways to manage it going forward.
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I am currently working for a Chinese customer. As ranrub suggested, pinging from Germany gives me an IP that’s reachable from China too.
I used this as a workaround: Set the IP you get from outside China into /etc/hosts for ocsp.int-x3.letsencrypt.org and certbot should run without complaint. Of course that can be only a workaround, since when the IP number changes it stops working however a workaround at least.
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Sorry, so far we have only been able to rule OUT actions which have the potential to cause increased outages and have not yet identified a good method of working around China’s block.
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@ezekiel , @_az , any news on this issue? Is it still being actively pursued by LE? We’re still getting blocked in China for OCSP requests.
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Hi Thread!
Thank you all for your patience, as I know we are all quite frustrated by the block 
.
Our long-term fix is to change the OCSP URL in newly issued certificates. As one might imagine, this is not a simple nor immediate change. We have plenty of work to do before this will roll out, but in the end we will be using a URL which isn’t affected by the current Akamai map segment which is blocked in China. We plan to make the URL shorter, as well!
Watch for threads in the API Announcements Category for more information as our timeline becomes clearer.
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This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.
This thread has automatically closed, but for anyone interested, our current issuance chain involves a new OCSP URI ( with a new, short domain o.lencr.org ) which is also handled within a new CDN "map". So, OCSP for newly-issued certificates should begin working again in China over the 90 days following this post: Beginning Issuance from R3 ( unless the new CDN map or any new URIs are blocked ).
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