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Textual Encodings of PKIX, PKCS, and CMS Structures
draft-josefsson-pkix-textual-10

Revision differences

Document history

Date Rev. By Action
2015-04-17
10 (System) RFC Editor state changed to AUTH48-DONE from AUTH48
2015-02-20
10 (System) RFC Editor state changed to AUTH48 from RFC-EDITOR
2015-02-18
10 (System) RFC Editor state changed to RFC-EDITOR from EDIT
2015-01-20
10 Amy Vezza IESG state changed to RFC Ed Queue from Approved-announcement sent
2015-01-16
10 (System) RFC Editor state changed to EDIT
2015-01-16
10 (System) Announcement was received by RFC Editor
2015-01-16
10 (System) IANA Action state changed to No IC
2015-01-16
10 Cindy Morgan IESG state changed to Approved-announcement sent from Approved-announcement to be sent::Point Raised - writeup needed
2015-01-16
10 Cindy Morgan IESG has approved the document
2015-01-16
10 Cindy Morgan Closed "Approve" ballot
2015-01-16
10 Cindy Morgan Ballot approval text was generated
2015-01-16
10 Cindy Morgan Ballot writeup was changed
2015-01-07
10 Suresh Krishnan Request for Telechat review by GENART Completed: Ready. Reviewer: Suresh Krishnan.
2014-12-29
10 Sean Leonard IANA Review state changed to Version Changed - Review Needed from IANA OK - No Actions Needed
2014-12-29
10 Sean Leonard New version available: draft-josefsson-pkix-textual-10.txt
2014-12-28
09 Gunter Van de Velde Closed request for Last Call review by OPSDIR with state 'No Response'
2014-12-18
09 Cindy Morgan IESG state changed to Approved-announcement to be sent::Point Raised - writeup needed from Waiting for AD Go-Ahead
2014-12-18
09 Alia Atlas [Ballot Position Update] New position, No Objection, has been recorded for Alia Atlas
2014-12-18
09 Jari Arkko [Ballot Position Update] New position, No Objection, has been recorded for Jari Arkko
2014-12-18
09 Joel Jaeggli [Ballot Position Update] New position, No Objection, has been recorded for Joel Jaeggli
2014-12-18
09 Benoît Claise [Ballot Position Update] New position, No Objection, has been recorded for Benoit Claise
2014-12-17
09 Amanda Baber IANA Review state changed to IANA OK - No Actions Needed from Version Changed - Review Needed
2014-12-17
09 Cindy Morgan Changed consensus to Yes from Unknown
2014-12-17
09 Martin Stiemerling [Ballot Position Update] New position, No Objection, has been recorded for Martin Stiemerling
2014-12-17
09 Richard Barnes
[Ballot comment]
I could not ballot YES more emphatically.  I can't tell you the number of times I've looked for a spec for "PEM formatted …
[Ballot comment]
I could not ballot YES more emphatically.  I can't tell you the number of times I've looked for a spec for "PEM formatted $FOO".

With that in mind: Should this document formally update PEM, and become the new official spec for PEM-encoded objects?  Have the relevant communities been involved to make that a reasonable option?

Section 3: Is there a way to modify the "base64finl" production to ensure it maxes out at 64 characters?  I'm not enough of an ABNF wizard to know.
2014-12-17
09 Richard Barnes [Ballot Position Update] New position, Yes, has been recorded for Richard Barnes
2014-12-16
09 Spencer Dawkins [Ballot Position Update] New position, No Objection, has been recorded for Spencer Dawkins
2014-12-16
09 Alissa Cooper [Ballot Position Update] New position, No Objection, has been recorded for Alissa Cooper
2014-12-16
09 Ted Lemon [Ballot Position Update] New position, No Objection, has been recorded for Ted Lemon
2014-12-16
09 Stephen Farrell [Ballot Position Update] Position for Stephen Farrell has been changed to Yes from Discuss
2014-12-15
09 Stephen Farrell
[Ballot discuss]

This should be very easy to handle, but I think does need to
be handled, either with a doc change or if you …
[Ballot discuss]

This should be very easy to handle, but I think does need to
be handled, either with a doc change or if you just tell me
it's ok...

If I b64 decoded the examples would they be correct? You
don't say and I wondered. If they would not all be correct,
then I think you really need to say that. If they would be
correct, it'd be nice to say that. And it'd be fine if the
relevant key lengths were reasonable by today's standards. I
ask because I don't recognise the AQAB normally expected at
the end of an SPKI in section 13 which also looks somewhat
pathetically short. (Or maybe you're already in ECC land?)
2014-12-15
09 Stephen Farrell
[Ballot comment]

- intro, para about alg agility - why is this here? I'd say
it could be deleted.

- intro, the example about cut'n'paste …
[Ballot comment]

- intro, para about alg agility - why is this here? I'd say
it could be deleted.

- intro, the example about cut'n'paste of cert chains is
misleading isn't it? What format actually allows that?  Isn't
the actual practice that the whole chain is b64 encoded and
so can't just be catenated?

- intro, s/M. Rose/Marshall Rose/ would be better

- [X509SG] reference - I thought Peter had a more easily
referencable version of this published somewhere.  That might
help with the RFC editor. I'd suggest asking Peter if there's
a better ref to use in addition.  (I'd also say that that URL
has been stable for quite a long time when you're asked, but
I'm sure the RFC editor will nonetheless be unhappy with it
for the usual not-bad reasons:-)

- section 2, 2nd para: you say it's ok if the labels on the
BEGIN and END don't match, but then you say that there
(implicitly) MUST be 5 dashes at the end - why is laxity ok
for one part of the END line but not another?

- section 8: degenerative is wrong unless pkcs#7 has a bone
disease or something:-) "specific" would do instead I'd say.

- section 14, last para: "namely" is wrong, I think you only
need to say "e.g.," as there could be mnay possible canonical
forms, not just DER. Or saying "most commonly, DER" would
also be ok I think.

- The author's way of handling the comments doesn't work for
me to track the secdir review [1] responses, but the I don't
think there was anything there that can't be handled between
author and reviewer.

  [1] https://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/secdir/current/msg05268.html
2014-12-15
09 Stephen Farrell [Ballot Position Update] New position, Discuss, has been recorded for Stephen Farrell
2014-12-14
09 Adrian Farrel
[Ballot comment]
The Abstract says:
  This document
  is intended to articulate the de-facto rules that existing
  implementations operate by, and to give …
[Ballot comment]
The Abstract says:
  This document
  is intended to articulate the de-facto rules that existing
  implementations operate by, and to give recommendations that will
  promote interoperability.
...yet the document is on the Standards Track.

Actually, I think that Standards Track is fine, but that this wording is too floppy.
You could have...
  This document
  articulates the de-facto rules by which existing
  implementations operate, and defines them so that future
  implementations can interoperate.
2014-12-14
09 Adrian Farrel Ballot comment text updated for Adrian Farrel
2014-12-14
09 Adrian Farrel
[Ballot comment]
The Abstract says:
  This document
  is intended to articulate the de-facto rules that existing
  implementations operate by, and to give …
[Ballot comment]
The Abstract says:
  This document
  is intended to articulate the de-facto rules that existing
  implementations operate by, and to give recommendations that will
  promote interoperability.
...yet the document is on the Standards Track.

Actually, I think that Standards Track is fine, but that this wording is too floppy.
You could have...
  This document
  articulates the de-facto rules by which existing
  implementations operate, and defines them so that future implementations
  can interoperate.
2014-12-14
09 Adrian Farrel [Ballot Position Update] New position, No Objection, has been recorded for Adrian Farrel
2014-12-13
09 Sean Leonard IANA Review state changed to Version Changed - Review Needed from IANA OK - No Actions Needed
2014-12-13
09 Sean Leonard New version available: draft-josefsson-pkix-textual-09.txt
2014-12-13
08 Barry Leiba [Ballot comment]
Pete has this in hand -- particularly the discussion of the ABNF for "label".
2014-12-13
08 Barry Leiba [Ballot Position Update] New position, No Objection, has been recorded for Barry Leiba
2014-12-13
08 Pete Resnick
[Ballot comment]
Mostly editorial, but a couple of substantive comments on the ABNF:

2 -

OLD
  Whitespace
  MAY appear between the pre-encapsulation boundary …
[Ballot comment]
Mostly editorial, but a couple of substantive comments on the ABNF:

2 -

OLD
  Whitespace
  MAY appear between the pre-encapsulation boundary and the base64, but
  generators SHOULD NOT emit such whitespace.
NEW
  Whitespace, carriage returns, and linefeeds
  can appear between the pre-encapsulation boundary and the base64, but
  generators SHOULD NOT emit such characters.
 
It's not clear that "CR" and "LF" are included in the word "Whitespace". Also notice the change from "MAY" to "can"; that MAY appears to contradict the SHOULD. If you want, you can add a "MUST ignore" for parsers.

3 -

A reference to RFC 5234 would be useful, noting that you are importing ALPHA, DIGIT, WSP, CR, LF, and CRLF.

There is no "::" in ABNF.

A slight simplification:

OLD
  label      ::= labelchar *(labelchar / labelchar "-" / SP) labelchar
NEW
  label      = labelchar *(labelchar ["-"] / SP) labelchar

So, do you really want to require a minimum of 2 labelchars? If not, you could instead have:

  label      = labelchar [*(labelchar ["-"] / SP) labelchar]

That would allow for a single labelchar label. Also, do you really want to allow as many spaces as desired between the first labelchar and the last? If you only want to allow one space:

  label      = labelchar *(labelchar ["-" / SP]) labelchar
 
And again put everything after the first labelchar in square brackets if you want to allow for a single labelchar.

Editorial:

OLD
  This specification RECOMMENDS that new implementations emit the
  strict format (Figure 2) specified above.
NEW
  New implementations SHOULD emit the strict format (Figure 2)
  specified above.

5.1, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13 - Editorial:

OLD
  (DER [strongly] preferred)
NEW
  (DER [strongly] preferred; see Appendix B)

5.1 - Editorial:

OLD
  are NOT RECOMMENDED to
NEW
  SHOULD

5.3 - Editorial:

OLD
  This Internet-Draft
  RECOMMENDS that the extension ".crt" be used
NEW
  the extension ".crt" SHOULD be used

6 and 8 - Editorial:

OLD
  Parsers are NOT RECOMMENDED to
NEW
  Parsers SHOULD NOT
2014-12-13
08 Pete Resnick [Ballot Position Update] New position, No Objection, has been recorded for Pete Resnick
2014-12-11
08 Jean Mahoney Request for Telechat review by GENART is assigned to Suresh Krishnan
2014-12-11
08 Jean Mahoney Request for Telechat review by GENART is assigned to Suresh Krishnan
2014-12-11
08 Kathleen Moriarty Ballot has been issued
2014-12-11
08 Kathleen Moriarty [Ballot Position Update] New position, Yes, has been recorded for Kathleen Moriarty
2014-12-11
08 Kathleen Moriarty Created "Approve" ballot
2014-12-11
08 Kathleen Moriarty Ballot writeup was changed
2014-12-11
08 Kathleen Moriarty Placed on agenda for telechat - 2014-12-18
2014-12-04
08 Tero Kivinen Request for Last Call review by SECDIR Completed: Has Nits. Reviewer: Magnus Nystrom.
2014-12-01
08 (System) IESG state changed to Waiting for AD Go-Ahead from In Last Call
2014-11-13
08 (System) IANA Review state changed to IANA OK - No Actions Needed from IANA - Review Needed
2014-11-13
08 Amanda Baber
IESG/Authors/WG Chairs:

IANA has reviewed draft-josefsson-pkix-textual-07, which is currently in Last Call, and has the following comments:

We understand that this document doesn't require …
IESG/Authors/WG Chairs:

IANA has reviewed draft-josefsson-pkix-textual-07, which is currently in Last Call, and has the following comments:

We understand that this document doesn't require any IANA actions.

While it is helpful for the IANA Considerations section of the document to remain in place upon publication, if the authors prefer to remove it, IANA doesn't object.

If this assessment is not accurate, please respond as soon as possible.
2014-11-12
08 Sean Leonard New version available: draft-josefsson-pkix-textual-08.txt
2014-11-11
07 Gunter Van de Velde Request for Last Call review by OPSDIR is assigned to Jason Weil
2014-11-11
07 Gunter Van de Velde Request for Last Call review by OPSDIR is assigned to Jason Weil
2014-11-06
07 Jean Mahoney Request for Last Call review by GENART is assigned to Suresh Krishnan
2014-11-06
07 Jean Mahoney Request for Last Call review by GENART is assigned to Suresh Krishnan
2014-11-06
07 Tero Kivinen Request for Last Call review by SECDIR is assigned to Magnus Nystrom
2014-11-06
07 Tero Kivinen Request for Last Call review by SECDIR is assigned to Magnus Nystrom
2014-11-03
07 Cindy Morgan IANA Review state changed to IANA - Review Needed
2014-11-03
07 Cindy Morgan
The following Last Call announcement was sent out:

From: The IESG
To: IETF-Announce
Reply-To: ietf@ietf.org
Sender:
Subject: Last Call:  (Textual Encodings of PKIX, PKCS, and …
The following Last Call announcement was sent out:

From: The IESG
To: IETF-Announce
Reply-To: ietf@ietf.org
Sender:
Subject: Last Call:  (Textual Encodings of PKIX, PKCS, and CMS Structures) to Proposed Standard


The IESG has received a request from an individual submitter to consider
the following document:
- 'Textual Encodings of PKIX, PKCS, and CMS Structures'
  as Proposed Standard

The IESG plans to make a decision in the next few weeks, and solicits
final comments on this action. Please send substantive comments to the
ietf@ietf.org mailing lists by 2014-12-01. Exceptionally, comments may be
sent to iesg@ietf.org instead. In either case, please retain the
beginning of the Subject line to allow automated sorting.

Abstract


  This document describes and discusses the textual encodings of the
  Public-Key Infrastructure X.509 (PKIX), Public-Key Cryptography
  Standards (PKCS), and Cryptographic Message Syntax (CMS).  The
  textual encodings are well-known, are implemented by several
  applications and libraries, and are widely deployed.  This document
  is intended to articulate the de-facto rules that existing
  implementations operate by, and to give recommendations that will
  promote interoperability.

Other Issues
  The draft makes two downward references:
    - RFC 2315: PKCS #7: Cryptographic Message Syntax Version 1.5
    - RFC 2986: PKCS #10: Certification Request Syntax Specification Version 1.7
  Both are already in the DownRef registry. 
 
  There is a normative reference to RFC 5208, which is obsolete. Will fix in -08


The file can be obtained via
http://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-josefsson-pkix-textual/

IESG discussion can be tracked via
http://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-josefsson-pkix-textual/ballot/


No IPR declarations have been submitted directly on this I-D.


2014-11-03
07 Cindy Morgan IESG state changed to In Last Call from Last Call Requested
2014-11-03
07 Cindy Morgan Last call announcement was changed
2014-11-03
07 Kathleen Moriarty Last call was requested
2014-11-03
07 Kathleen Moriarty Ballot approval text was generated
2014-11-03
07 Kathleen Moriarty IESG state changed to Last Call Requested from Publication Requested
2014-11-03
07 Kathleen Moriarty Last call announcement was changed
2014-10-31
07 Kathleen Moriarty Last call announcement was generated
2014-10-31
07 Kathleen Moriarty IESG process started in state Publication Requested
2014-10-31
07 Kathleen Moriarty Ballot writeup was changed
2014-10-31
07 Kathleen Moriarty Ballot writeup was generated
2014-10-30
07 Yoav Nir
Authors are Simon Josefsson and Sean Leonard. Kathleen Moriarty is the
responsible Area Directory. Yoav Nir is the document shepherd.

Summary
  This document describes …
Authors are Simon Josefsson and Sean Leonard. Kathleen Moriarty is the
responsible Area Directory. Yoav Nir is the document shepherd.

Summary
  This document describes and discusses the textual encodings of the
  Public-Key Infrastructure X.509 (PKIX), Public-Key Cryptography
  Standards (PKCS), and Cryptographic Message Syntax (CMS).  The
  textual encodings are well-known, are implemented by several
  applications and libraries, and are widely deployed.  This document
  is intended to articulate the de-facto rules that existing
  implementations operate by, and to give recommendations that will
  promote interoperability.
 
Review and Consensus
  This document describes existing practice implemented by multiple
  vendor products and open source projects, and harmonizes minor
  discrepancies among implementations. As an individual submission
  this document does not reflect a working group consensus The PKIX
  group was already closed by the time the authors started work on this
  document. The document did receive some review on the PKIX and SAAG
  lists, including from implementers that said that it is aligned with
  their implementations.
 
Intellectual Property
  Both authors have confirmed that they are not aware of any undisclosed
  IPR associated with this document.
 
Other Issues
  The draft makes two downward references:
    - RFC 2315: PKCS #7: Cryptographic Message Syntax Version 1.5
    - RFC 2986: PKCS #10: Certification Request Syntax Specification Version 1.7
  Both are already in the DownRef registry. 
 
  There is a normative reference to RFC 5208, which is obsolete. Will fix in -08
2014-10-30
07 Kathleen Moriarty Notification list changed to simon@josefsson.org, draft-josefsson-pkix-textual.all@tools.ietf.org, dev+ietf@seantek.com, "Yoav Nir" <ynir.ietf@gmail.com> from simon@josefsson.org, draft-josefsson-pkix-textual.all@tools.ietf.org, dev+ietf@seantek.com
2014-10-30
07 Kathleen Moriarty Document shepherd changed to Yoav Nir
2014-10-20
07 Kathleen Moriarty Notification list changed to simon@josefsson.org, draft-josefsson-pkix-textual.all@tools.ietf.org, dev+ietf@seantek.com
2014-10-20
07 Kathleen Moriarty IETF WG state changed to Submitted to IESG for Publication
2014-10-20
07 Kathleen Moriarty Intended Status changed to Proposed Standard from None
2014-10-20
07 Kathleen Moriarty Stream changed to IETF from None
2014-10-20
07 Kathleen Moriarty Shepherding AD changed to Kathleen Moriarty
2014-09-24
07 Sean Leonard New version available: draft-josefsson-pkix-textual-07.txt
2014-09-15
06 Sean Leonard New version available: draft-josefsson-pkix-textual-06.txt
2014-07-03
05 Sean Leonard New version available: draft-josefsson-pkix-textual-05.txt
2014-07-01
04 Sean Leonard New version available: draft-josefsson-pkix-textual-04.txt
2014-04-30
03 Simon Josefsson New version available: draft-josefsson-pkix-textual-03.txt
2013-10-21
02 Sean Leonard New version available: draft-josefsson-pkix-textual-02.txt
2012-07-16
01 Sean Leonard New version available: draft-josefsson-pkix-textual-01.txt
2012-01-27
00 (System) New version available: draft-josefsson-pkix-textual-00.txt