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OPC UA Certificates do not work after Year 2038

Posted: 18 Mar 2011, 15:22
by Support Team
This problem is caused by an overflow of the 32 bit time_t datatype, which is internally used to store certificate issue and expiration time.
This overflow is also known as the "Year 2038 Problem".

On 64bit systems 64bit time_t can be used to avoid the problem.

Anyhow, it is not recommanded today to configure such a long certificate validity time. According to Moore's law computer speeds double approximately every two years and so todays key lengths may become prone to brute force attacks after such a long time.

Certificates should typically be renewed after 1-3 years.