EV Upgrader™

Automatically upgrades Internet Explorer 7 on Windows XP to see Extended Validation (EV) SSL "green bar" interface

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, organization name, and issuing Certificate Authority. Without EV Upgrader, only Windows Vista client systems are sure to see the green bar. 

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 "recognize" an SSL Certificate's EV status.  Without EV Upgrader many IE7 clients on XP may not recognize an SSL certificate as EV. They will recognize it as a valid SSL certificate, and will initiate an encrypted session. However if the browser does not recognize 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 recognize 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 recognize 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 recognize 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 recognize 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" behavior 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 an EV SSL Certificate, 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 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.