Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure Operational Protocols - LDAPv2
RFC 2559

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Network Working Group                                      S. Boeyen
Request for Comments: 2559                                   Entrust
Updates: 1778                                               T. Howes
Category: Standards Track                                   Netscape
                                                          P. Richard
                                                               Xcert
                                                          April 1999

                Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure
                     Operational Protocols - LDAPv2

Status of this Memo

   This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
   Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
   improvements.  Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
   Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
   and status of this protocol.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999).  All Rights Reserved.

1.  Abstract

   The protocol described in this document is designed to satisfy some
   of the operational requirements within the Internet X.509 Public Key
   Infrastructure (IPKI).  Specifically, this document addresses
   requirements to provide access to Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)
   repositories for the purposes of retrieving PKI information and
   managing that same information.  The mechanism described in this
   document is based on the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)
   v2, defined in RFC 1777, defining a profile of that protocol for use
   within the IPKI and updates encodings for certificates and revocation
   lists from RFC 1778. Additional mechanisms addressing PKIX
   operational requirements are specified in separate documents.

   The key words 'MUST', 'REQUIRED', 'SHOULD', 'RECOMMENDED', and 'MAY'
   in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119.

2.  Introduction

   This specification is part of a multi-part standard for development
   of a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) for the Internet. This
   specification addresses requirements to provide retrieval of X.509
   PKI information, including certificates and CRLs from a repository.
   This specification also addresses requirements to add, delete and

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RFC 2559          PKIX Operational Protocols - LDAPv2         April 1999

   modify PKI information in a repository. A profile based on the LDAP
   version 2 protocol is provided to satisfy these requirements.

3.  Model

   The PKI components, as defined in PKIX Part 1, which are involved in
   PKIX operational protocol interactions include:

      -  End Entities
      -  Certification Authorities (CA)
      -  Repository

   End entities and CAs using LDAPv2, retrieve PKI information from the
   repository using a subset of the LDAPv2 protocol.

   CAs populate the repository with PKI information using a subset of
   the LDAPv2 protocol.

4.  Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)

   The following sections examine the retrieval of PKI information from
   a repository and management of PKI information in a repository. A
   profile of the LDAPv2 protocol is defined for providing these
   services.

   Section 5 satisfies the requirement to retrieve PKI information (a
   certificate, CRL, or other information of interest) from an entry in
   the repository, where the retrieving entity (either an end entity or
   a CA) has knowledge of the name of the entry. This is termed
   "repository read".

   Section 6 satisfies the same requirement as 5 for the situation where
   the name of the entry is not known, but some other related
   information which may optionally be used as a filter against
   candidate entries in the repository, is known.  This is termed
   "repository search".

   Section 7 satisfies the requirement of CAs to add, delete and modify
   PKI information information (a certificate, CRL, or other information
   of interest)in the repository. This is termed "repository modify".

   The subset of LDAPv2 needed to support each of these functions is
   described below.  Note that the repository search service is a
   superset of the repository read service in terms of the LDAPv2
   functionality needed.

   Note that all tags are implicit by default in the ASN.1 definitions
   that follow.

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RFC 2559          PKIX Operational Protocols - LDAPv2         April 1999

5.  LDAP Repository Read

   To retrieve information from an entry corresponding to the subject or
   issuer name of a certificate, requires a subset of the following
   three LDAP operations:

     BindRequest (and BindResponse)
     SearchRequest (and SearchResponse)
     UnbindRequest

   The subset of each REQUIRED operation is given below.

5.1.  Bind

5.1.1.  Bind Request

   The full LDAP v2 Bind Request is defined in RFC 1777.