INTERNET DRAFT                                               R. Housley
Intended Status: Informational                           Vigil Security
Expires: 22 August 2010                                22 February 2010


  The application/pkix-attr-cert Media Type for Attribute Certificates
              <draft-ietf-pkix-attr-cert-mime-type-03.txt>


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Abstract

   This document specifies a MIME media type used to carry a single
   attribute certificate as defined in RFC 3281.



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1. Introduction

   RFC 2585 [RFC2585] defines the MIME media types for public key
   certificates and certificate revocation lists (CRLs).  This document
   specifies a MIME media type for use with attribute certificates as
   defined in RFC 3281 [RFC3281].

   Attribute certificates are ASN.1 encoded [X.680].  RFC 3281 [RFC3281]
   tells which portions of the attribute certificate must use the
   distinguished encoding rules (DER) [X.690] and which portions are
   permitted to use the basic encoding rules (BER) [X.690].  Since DER
   is a proper subset of BER, BER decoding all parts of a properly
   constructed attribute certificate will be successful.

2. IANA Considerations

   This document registers with IANA the "application/pkix-attr-cert"
   Internet Media Type for use with an attribute certificate as defined
   in [RFC3281].  This registration follows the procedures defined in
   BCP 13 [RFC4288].

      Type name: application

      Subtype name: pkix-attr-cert

      Required parameters: None

      Optional parameters: None

      Encoding considerations: binary

      Security considerations:
        An attribute certificate provides authorization information.  An
        attribute certificate is most often used in conjunction with
        public key certificate [RFC5280], and the two certificates
        should use the same encoding of the distinguished name as
        described in the Security Considerations of this document.

      Interoperability considerations:
        The media type will be used with HTTP to fetch attribute
        certificates.  Other uses may emerge in the future.

      Published specification: RFC 3281

      Applications which use this media type:
        The media type is used with a MIME-compliant transport to
        transfer an attribute certificate.  Attribute certificates
        convey authorization information, and they are most often used



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        in conjunction with public key certificates as defined in
        [RFC5280].

      Additional information:
        Magic number(s): None
        File extension(s): .ac
        Macintosh File Type Code(s): none

      Person & email address to contact for further information:
        Russ Housley
        housley@vigilsec.com

      Intended usage: COMMON

      Restrictions on usage: none

      Author:
        Russ Housley <housley@vigilsec.com>

      Intended usage: COMMON

      Change controller:
        The IESG <iesg@ietf.org>

3. Security Considerations

   Attribute certificate issuers must encode the holder entity name in
   exactly the same way as the public key certificate distinguished
   name.  If they are encoded differently, implementations may fail to
   recognize that the attribute certificate and public key certificate
   belong to the same entity.

4. References

4.1. Normative References

   [RFC3281]  S. Farrell, S., and R. Housley, "An Internet Attribute
              Certificate Profile for Authorization", RFC 3281,
              April 2002.

4.2. Informative References

   [RFC2585]  Housley, R., and P. Hoffman, " Internet X.509 Public Key
              Infrastructure Operational Protocols: FTP and HTTP",
              RFC 2585, May 1999.

   [RFC4288]  Freed, N., and J. Klensin, "Media Type Specifications and
              Registration Procedures", BCP 13, RFC 4288, December 2005.



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

   [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.

   [X.690]    ITU-T Recommendation X.690 (2002) | ISO/IEC 8825-1:2002,
              Information technology - ASN.1 encoding rules:
              Specification of Basic Encoding Rules (BER), Canonical
              Encoding Rules (CER) and Distinguished Encoding Rules
              (DER).

Authors' Addresses

   Russell Housley
   Vigil Security, LLC
   918 Spring Knoll Drive
   Herndon, VA 20170
   USA
   EMail: housley@vigilsec.com




























Housley                                                         [Page 4]