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Updates to the Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure Certificate and Certificate Revocation List (CRL) Profile
draft-ietf-pkix-rfc5280-clarifications-04

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft that was ultimately published as RFC 6818.
Author David Cooper
Last updated 2012-03-12
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draft-ietf-pkix-rfc5280-clarifications-04
INTERNET-DRAFT                                                 D. Cooper
Intended Status: Proposed Standard                                  NIST
Updates: 5280 (if approved)                               March 12, 2012
Expires: September 13, 2012                                             

        Updates to the Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure
       Certificate and Certificate Revocation List (CRL) Profile 
            <draft-ietf-pkix-rfc5280-clarifications-04.txt>

Status of this Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted to IETF in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups.  Note that
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Copyright and License Notice

   Copyright (c) 2012 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors. All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
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   described in the Simplified BSD License.

 

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Abstract

   This document updates RFC 5280, the Internet X.509 Public Key
   Infrastructure Certificate and Certificate Revocation List (CRL)
   Profile.  This document changes the set of acceptable encoding
   methods for the explicitText field of the user notice policy
   qualifier and clarifies the rules for converting internationalized
   domain name labels to ASCII.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  2
     1.1.  Terminology  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
   2.  Update to RFC 5280, Section 3.2: Certification Paths and
       Trust  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
   3.  Update to RFC 5280, Section 4.2.1.4: Certificate Policies  . .  3
   4.  Update to RFC 5280, Section 6.2: Using the Path Validation
       Algorithm  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
   5.  Update to RFC 5280, Section 7.3: Internationalized Domain 
       Names in Distinguished Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
   6.  Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
   7.  IANA Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
   8.  References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
     8.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
     8.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
   Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7

1.  Introduction

   This document updates the Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure
   Certificate and Certificate Revocation List (CRL) Profile [RFC5280].

   The ASN.1 [X.680] syntax for the user notice certificate policy
   qualifier allows for the explicitText field to be encoded using one
   of four possible encoding methods: IA5String, VisibleString,
   BMPString, or UTF8String.  RFC 5280 permits certification authorities
   (CA) to encode strings in the explicitText field as either UTF8String
   or IA5String while forbidding the use of VisibleString and BMPString.
   However, after RFC 5280 was published, an examination of existing
   certificates found that the VisibleString encoding was commonly used.
   This document brings the requirements into closer alignment with
   existing practice by stating that the explicitText field may be
   encoded in either UTF8String, VisibleString, or BMPString while
   forbidding the use of IA5String.

   Section 7.3 of RFC 5280 specifies rules for converting
 

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   internationalized domain name labels that are to appear in a
   domainComponent attribute to ASCII.  The conversion process specified
   in RFC 5280 did not specify that the "UseSTD3ASCIIRules" flag needed
   to be set.  This document modifies the conversion process specified
   in Section 7.3 of RFC 5280 to clarify that "UseSTD3ASCIIRules" flag
   should be set.  The result of this is to indicate that the check for
   conformance to [RFC1123] should be performed.  

1.1.  Terminology

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119].

2.  Update to RFC 5280, Section 3.2: Certification Paths and Trust

   Add the following paragraph to the end of RFC 5280, Section 3.2:

|  In some cases, a self-signed certificate is used to convey a public
|  key that is not intended to be used to begin certification paths.
|  Such a self-signed certificate is commonly referred to as a self-
|  signed end-entity certificate.  While Section 6.2 notes that
|  implementations are not required to process extensions that appear in
|  self-signed certificates, self-signed end-entity certificates SHOULD
|  NOT include a BasicConstraints extension that asserts the cA boolean.
|  The use of self-signed certificates for purposes other than to convey
|  a public key for use to begin certification paths is outside the
|  scope of this specification.

3.  Update to RFC 5280, Section 4.2.1.4: Certificate Policies

   RFC 5280, Section 4.2.1.4, the tenth paragraph says:

|     An explicitText field includes the textual statement directly in
|     the certificate.  The explicitText field is a string with a
|     maximum size of 200 characters.  Conforming CAs SHOULD use the
|     UTF8String encoding for explicitText, but MAY use IA5String.
|     Conforming CAs MUST NOT encode explicitText as VisibleString or
|     BMPString.  The explicitText string SHOULD NOT include any control
|     characters (e.g., U+0000 to U+001F and U+007F to U+009F).  When
|     the UTF8String encoding is used, all character sequences SHOULD be
|     normalized according to Unicode normalization form C (NFC) [NFC].

   This paragraph is replaced with:

|     An explicitText field includes the textual statement directly in
|     the certificate.  The explicitText field is a string with a
|     maximum size of 200 characters.  Conforming CAs SHOULD use the
 

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|     UTF8String encoding for explicitText, but MAY use VisibleString or
|     BMPString.  Conforming CAs MUST NOT encode explicitText as 
|     IA5String.  The explicitText string SHOULD NOT include any control
|     characters (e.g., U+0000 to U+001F and U+007F to U+009F).  When
|     the UTF8String or BMPString encoding is used, all character
|     sequences SHOULD be normalized according to Unicode normalization
|     form C (NFC) [NFC].

4.  Update to RFC 5280, Section 6.2: Using the Path Validation Algorithm

   RFC 5280, Section 6.2, the third paragraph says:

|  Where a CA distributes self-signed certificates to specify trust
|  anchor information, certificate extensions can be used to specify
|  recommended inputs to path validation.  For example, a policy
|  constraints extension could be included in the self-signed
|  certificate to indicate that paths beginning with this trust anchor
|  should be trusted only for the specified policies.  Similarly, a name
|  constraints extension could be included to indicate that paths
|  beginning with this trust anchor should be trusted only for the
|  specified name spaces.  The path validation algorithm presented in
|  Section 6.1 does not assume that trust anchor information is provided
|  in self-signed certificates and does not specify processing rules for
|  additional information included in such certificates.
|  Implementations that use self-signed certificates to specify trust
|  anchor information are free to process or ignore such information.

   This paragraph is replaced with:

|  Where a CA distributes self-signed certificates to specify trust
|  anchor information, certificate extensions can be used to specify
|  recommended inputs to path validation.  For example, a policy
|  constraints extension could be included in the self-signed
|  certificate to indicate that paths beginning with this trust anchor
|  should be trusted only for the specified policies.  Similarly, a name
|  constraints extension could be included to indicate that paths
|  beginning with this trust anchor should be trusted only for the
|  specified name spaces.  While the path validation algorithm presented
|  in Section 6.1 does not assume that trust anchor information is
|  provided in self-signed certificates and does not specify processing
|  rules for additional information included in such certificates,
|  [RFC5937] provides an example of how additional information included
|  in self-signed certificates may be used to initialize the path
|  validation inputs.  Implementations that use self-signed certificates
|  to specify trust anchor information are free to process any
|  additional information that is included in the certificates or ignore
|  such information.

 

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5.  Update to RFC 5280, Section 7.3: Internationalized Domain Names in
    Distinguished Names

   RFC 5280, Section 7.3, the first paragraph says:

|  Domain Names may also be represented as distinguished names using
|  domain components in the subject field, the issuer field, the
|  subjectAltName extension, or the issuerAltName extension.  As with
|  the dNSName in the GeneralName type, the value of this attribute is
|  defined as an IA5String.  Each domainComponent attribute represents a
|  single label.  To represent a label from an IDN in the distinguished
|  name, the implementation MUST perform the "ToASCII" label conversion
|  specified in Section 4.1 of RFC 3490.  The label SHALL be considered
|  a "stored string".  That is, the AllowUnassigned flag SHALL NOT be
|  set.

   This paragraph is replaced with:

|  Domain Names may also be represented as distinguished names using
|  domain components in the subject field, the issuer field, the
|  subjectAltName extension, or the issuerAltName extension.  As with
|  the dNSName in the GeneralName type, the value of this attribute is
|  defined as an IA5String.  Each domainComponent attribute represents a
|  single label.  To represent a label from an IDN in the distinguished
|  name, the implementation MUST perform the "ToASCII" label conversion
|  specified in Section 4.1 of RFC 3490 with the UseSTD3ASCIIRules flag
|  set.  The label SHALL be considered a "stored string".  That is, the
|  AllowUnassigned flag SHALL NOT be set.  The conversion process is the
|  same as is performed in step 4 in Section 7.2.

 

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6.  Security Considerations

   This document modifies the Security Considerations section of RFC
   5280 as follows.  The fifth paragraph of the Security Considerations
   section of RFC 5280 says:

|  The protection afforded private keys is a critical security factor.
|  On a small scale, failure of users to protect their private keys will
|  permit an attacker to masquerade as them or decrypt their personal
|  information.  On a larger scale, compromise of a CA's private signing
|  key may have a catastrophic effect.  If an attacker obtains the
|  private key unnoticed, the attacker may issue bogus certificates and
|  CRLs.  Existence of bogus certificates and CRLs will undermine
|  confidence in the system.  If such a compromise is detected, all
|  certificates issued to the compromised CA MUST be revoked, preventing
|  services between its users and users of other CAs.  Rebuilding after
|  such a compromise will be problematic, so CAs are advised to
|  implement a combination of strong technical measures (e.g., tamper-
|  resistant cryptographic modules) and appropriate management
|  procedures (e.g., separation of duties) to avoid such an incident.

   This paragraph is replaced with:

|  The protection afforded private keys is a critical security factor.
|  On a small scale, failure of users to protect their private keys will
|  permit an attacker to masquerade as them or decrypt their personal
|  information.  On a larger scale, compromise of a CA's private signing
|  key may have a catastrophic effect.  
|
|  If an attacker obtains the private key of a CA unnoticed, the
|  attacker may issue bogus certificates and CRLs.  Even if an attacker
|  is unable to obtain a copy of a CA's private key, the attacker may be
|  able to issue bogus certificates and CRLs by making unauthorized use
|  of the CA's workstation or of an RA's workstation.  Such an attack
|  may be the result of an attacker obtaining unauthorized access to the
|  workstation, either locally or remotely, or may be the result of
|  inappropriate activity by an insider.  Existence of bogus
|  certificates and CRLs will undermine confidence in the system.  Among
|  many other possible attacks, the attacker may issue bogus
|  certificates that have the same subject names as legitimate
|  certificates in order impersonate legitimate certificate subjects.
|  This could include bogus CA certificates in which the subject names
|  in the bogus certificates match the names under which legitimate CAs
|  issue certificates and CRLs.  This would allow the attacker to issue
|  bogus certificates and CRLs that have the same issuer names, and
|  possibly the same serial numbers, as certificates and CRLs issued by
|  legitimate CAs.

 

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7.  IANA Considerations

   This document has no actions for IANA.

8.  References 

8.1.  Normative References

   [RFC1123]   Braden, R., Ed., "Requirements for Internet Hosts -
               Application and Support", STD 3, RFC 1123, October 1989.

   [RFC2119]   Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
               Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

   [RFC5280]   Cooper, D., Santesson, S., Farrell, S., Boeyen, S.,
               Housley, R., and W. Polk, "Internet X.509 Public Key
               Infrastructure Certificate and Certificate Revocation
               List (CRL) Profile", RFC 5280, May 2008.

8.2.  Informative References

   [RFC5937]   Ashmore, S. and C. Wallace, "Using Trust Anchor
               Constraints during Certification Path Processing",
               RFC 5937, August 2010.

   [X.680]     ITU-T Recommendation X.680 (2002) | ISO/IEC 8824-1:2002,
               Information Technology - Abstract Syntax Notation One
               (ASN.1):  Specification of basic notation.

   [NFC]       Davis, M. and M. Duerst, "Unicode Standard Annex #15:
               Unicode Normalization Forms", October 2006,
               <http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr15/>.

Author's Address

   David Cooper
   National Institute of Standards and Technology
   100 Bureau Drive, Mail Stop 8930
   Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8930
   USA

   EMail: david.cooper@nist.gov

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