Public-Key Infrastructure (X.509) (pkix)

Last Modified: 2006-03-29

Chair(s):

Stephen Kent <kent@bbn.com>

Stefan Santesson <stefans@microsoft.com>

Security Area Director(s):

Russ Housley <housley@vigilsec.com>

Sam Hartman <hartmans-ietf@mit.edu>

Security Area Advisor:

Russ Housley <housley@vigilsec.com>

Mailing Lists:

General Discussion: ietf-pkix@imc.org
To Subscribe: ietf-pkix-request@imc.org
In Body: subscribe (In Body)
Archive: http://www.imc.org/ietf-pkix

Description of Working Group:

The PKIX Working Group was established in the Fall of 1995 with the
intent of developing Internet standards needed to support an
X.509-based PKI. The scope of PKIX work has expanded beyond this
initial goal. PKIX not only profiles ITU PKI standards, but also
develops new standards apropos to the use of X.509-based PKIs in the
Internet.

PKIX has produced several informational and standards track documents
in support of the original and revised scope of the WG. The first of
these standards, RFC 2459, profiled X.509 version 3 certificates and
version 2 CRLs for use in the Internet. Profiles for the use of
Attribute Certificates (RFC XXXX [pending]), LDAP v2 for certificate
and CRL storage (RFC 2587), the Internet X.509 Public Key
Infrastructure Qualified Certificates Profile (RFC 3039), and the
Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure Certificate Policy and
certification Practices Framework (RFC 2527 - Informational) are in
line with the initial scope.

The Certificate Management Protocol (CMP) (RFC 2510), the Online
Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) (RFC 2560), Certificate Management
Request Format (CRMF) (RFC 2511), Time-Stamp Protocol (RFC 3161),
Certificate Management Messages over CMS (RFC 2797), Internet X.509
Public Key Infrastructure Time Stamp Protocols (RFC 3161), and the use
of FTP and HTTP for transport of PKI operations (RFC 2585) are
representative of the expanded scope of PKIX, as these are new
protocols developed in the working group, not profiles of ITU PKI
standards.

A roadmap, providing a guide to the growing set of PKIX document, also
has been developed as an informational RFC.

Ongoing PKIX Work items

An ongoing PKIX task is the progression of existing, standards track
RFCs from PROPOSED to DRAFT. Also, to the extent that PKIX work
relates to protocols from other areas, e.g., LDAP, it is necessary to
track the evolution of the other protocols and produce updated
RFCs. For example, the LDAP v2 documents from PKIX are evolving to
address LDAP v3. Finally, since the profiling of X.509 standards for
use in the Internet remains a major focus, the WG will continue to
track the evolution of these standards and incorporate changes and
additions as appropriate.

New Work items for PKIX

- production of a requirements RFC for delegated path discovery and
path validation protocols (DPD/DPV) and subsequent production of
RFCs for protocols that satisfy the requirements

- development of a logotype extension for certificates

- development of a proxy certificate extension and associated
processing rules

- development of an informational document on PKI disaster recovery

These work items may become standards track, INFORMATIONAL or
EXPERIMENTAL RFCs, or may not even be published as RFCs.

Other deliverables may be agreed upon as extensions are proposed.
New deliverables must be approved by the Security Area Directors
before inclusion on the charter or IETF meeting agendas.

Goals and Milestones:

Done		Complete approval of CMC, and qualified certificates documents
Done		Complete time stamping document
Done		Continue attribute certificate profile work
Done		Complete data certification document
Done		Complete work on attribute certificate profile
Done		Standard RFCs for public key and attribute certificate profiles, CMP, OCSP, CMC, CRMF, TSP, Qualified Certificates, LDAP v2 schema, use of FTP/HTTP, Diffie-Hellman POP
Done		INFORMATIONAL RFCs for X.509 PKI policies and practices, use of KEA
Done		Experimental RFC for Data Validation and Certification Server Protocols
Done		Production of revised certificate and CRL syntax and processing RFC (son-of-2459)
Done		DPD/DVP Requirements RFC
Done		Certificate Policy & CPS Informational RFC (revision)
Done		Logotype Extension RFC
Done		Proxy Certificate RFC
Done		Cert Path Building approved as Informational RFC
Done		CRMFbis approved as PROPOSED Standard RFC
Done		CMPbis approved as PROPOSED Standard RFC
Done		Principal Identifier approved as PROPOSED Standard RFC
Done		Warranty Extensions approved as Informational RFC
Done		Certificate Store approved as Informational RFC
Sep 2005		OCSPv2 Extensions approved as PROPOSED Standard RFC
Dec 2005		PKIX Repository approved as Informational RFC
Jan 2006		Progression of CRMF, CMP, and CMP Transport to DRAFT Standard
Jan 2006		Progression of SCVP to Draft Standard
Jan 2006		Subject Identification Method as Informational RFC
Mar 2006		Progression of Time Stamp Protocols RFC to DRAFT Standard
Apr 2006		Progression of Qualified Certificates Profile RFC to DRAFT Standard
Apr 2006		Progression of Certificate & CRL Profile RFC to DRAFT Standard
Apr 2006		Progression of Logotype RFC to DRAFT Standard
Apr 2006		Progression of Proxy Certificate RFC to DRAFT Standard
Apr 2006		Progression of Attribute Certificate Profile RFC to DRAFT standard
Apr 2006		SCVP approved as PROPOSED Standard RFC
Apr 2006		ECC Algorithms approved as PROPOSED Standard RFC
Aug 2006		Progression of CMC RFCs to DRAFT Standard

Internet-Drafts:

Server-based Certificate Validation Protocol (SCVP) (195355 bytes)
Certificate Management Messages over CMS (147503 bytes)
Certificate Management over CMS (CMC) Transport Protocols (11586 bytes)
CMC Complience Document (21102 bytes)
Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure Subject Identification Method (SIM) (41038 bytes)
Additional Algorithms and Identifiers for use of Elliptic Curve Cryptography with PKIX (42562 bytes)
Lightweight OCSP Profile for High Volume Environments (46742 bytes)
Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure Certificate and Certificate Revocation List (CRL) Profile (338115 bytes)
Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure Subject Alternative Name for expression of service name (16723 bytes)
Update to DirectoryString Processing in the Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure Certificate and Certificate Revocation List (CRL) Profile (11423 bytes)
Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure: Additional Algorithms and Identifiers for DSA and ECDSA (32071 bytes)

Request For Comments:

IETF Secretariat - Please send questions, comments, and/or suggestions to ietf-web@ietf.org.

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