Skip to main content

Certificate Management Messages over CMS (CMC): Compliance Requirements
RFC 5274

Document Type RFC - Proposed Standard (June 2008)
Updated by RFC 6402
Authors Michael Myers , Jim Schaad
Last updated 2015-10-14
RFC stream Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
Formats
Additional resources Mailing list discussion
IESG Responsible AD Tim Polk
Send notices to (None)
RFC 5274
Network Working Group                                          J. Schaad
Request for Comments: 5274                       Soaring Hawk Consulting
Category: Standards Track                                       M. Myers
                                               TraceRoute Security, Inc.
                                                               June 2008

Certificate Management Messages over CMS (CMC): Compliance Requirements

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.

Abstract

   This document provides a set of compliance statements about the CMC
   (Certificate Management over CMS) enrollment protocol.  The ASN.1
   structures and the transport mechanisms for the CMC enrollment
   protocol are covered in other documents.  This document provides the
   information needed to make a compliant version of CMC.

Table of Contents

   1.  Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  2
   2.  Terminology  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  2
   3.  Requirements Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
   4.  Requirements for All Entities  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
     4.1.  Cryptographic Algorithm Requirements . . . . . . . . . . .  4
     4.2.  Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
     4.3.  CRMF Feature Requirements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
     4.4.  Requirements for Clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
   5.  Requirements for Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
   6.  Requirements for EEs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
   7.  Requirements for RAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
   8.  Requirements for CAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
   9.  Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
   10. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
   11. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
     11.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
     11.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Schaad & Myers              Standards Track                     [Page 1]
RFC 5274                    CMC: Compliance                    June 2008

1.  Overview

   The CMC (Certificate Management over CMS) protocol is designed in
   terms of a client/server relationship.  In the simplest case, the
   client is the requestor of the certificate (i.e., the End Entity
   (EE)) and the server is the issuer of the certificate (i.e., the
   Certification Authority (CA)).  The introduction of a Registration
   Authority (RA) into the set of agents complicates the picture only
   slightly.  The RA becomes the server with respect to the certificate
   requestor, and it becomes the client with respect to the certificate
   issuer.  Any number of RAs can be inserted into the picture in this
   manner.

   The RAs may serve specialized purposes that are not currently covered
   by this document.  One such purpose would be a Key Escrow agent.  As
   such, all certificate requests for encryption keys would be directed
   through this RA and it would take appropriate action to do the key
   archival.  Key recovery requests could be defined in the CMC
   methodology allowing for the Key Escrow agent to perform that
   operation acting as the final server in the chain of agents.

   If there are multiple RAs in the system, it is considered normal that
   not all RAs will see all certificate requests.  The routing between
   the RAs may be dependent on the content of the certificate requests
   involved.

   This document is divided into six sections, each section specifying
   the requirements that are specific to a class of agents in the CMC
   model.  These are 1) All agents, 2) all servers, 3) all clients, 4)
   all End-Entities, 5) all Registration Entities, 6) all Certificate
   Authorities.

2.  Terminology

   There are several different terms, abbreviations, and acronyms used
   in this document that we define here for convenience and consistency
   of usage:

   End-Entity  (EE) refers to the entity that owns a key pair and for
      whom a certificate is issued.

   Registration Authority (RA)  or Local RA (LRA) refers to an entity
      that acts as an intermediary between the EE and the CA.  Multiple
      RAs can exist between the End-Entity and the Certification
      Authority.  RAs may perform additional services such as key
      generation or key archival.  This document uses the term RA for
      both RA and LRA.

Schaad & Myers              Standards Track                     [Page 2]
RFC 5274                    CMC: Compliance                    June 2008

   Certification Authority (CA)  refers to the entity that issues
      certificates.

   Client  refers to an entity that creates a PKI Request.  In this
      document, both RAs and EEs can be clients.

   Server  refers to the entities that process PKI Requests and create
      PKI Responses.  In this document both CAs and RAs can be servers.

   PKCS #10  refers to the Public Key Cryptography Standard #10
      [PKCS10], which defines a certification request syntax.

   CRMF  refers to the Certificate Request Message Format RFC [CRMF].
      CMC uses this certification request syntax defined in this
      document as part of the protocol.

   CMS  refers to the Cryptographic Message Syntax RFC [CMS].  This
      document provides for basic cryptographic services including
      encryption and signing with and without key management.

   PKI Request/Response  refers to the requests/responses described in
      this document.  PKI Requests include certification requests,
      revocation requests, etc.  PKI Responses include certs-only
      messages, failure messages, etc.

   Proof-of-Identity  refers to the client proving they are who they say
      that they are to the server.

   Proof-of-Possession (POP)  refers to a value that can be used to
      prove that the private key corresponding to a public key is in the
      possession and can be used by an end-entity.

   Transport wrapper  refers to the outermost CMS wrapping layer.

3.  Requirements 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 [MUST].

4.  Requirements for All Entities

   All [CMC-STRUCT] and [CMC-TRANS] compliance statements MUST be
   adhered to unless specifically stated otherwise in this document.

   All entities MUST support Full PKI Requests, Simple PKI Responses,
   and Full PKI Responses.  Servers SHOULD support Simple PKI Requests.

Schaad & Myers              Standards Track                     [Page 3]
RFC 5274                    CMC: Compliance                    June 2008

   All entities MUST support the use of the CRMF syntax for
   certification requests.  Support for the PKCS #10 syntax for
   certification requests SHOULD be implemented by servers.

   The extendedFailInfo field SHOULD NOT be populated in the
   CMCStatusInfoV2 object; the failInfo field SHOULD be used to relay
   this information.  If the extendedFailInfo field is used, it is
   suggested that an additional CMCStatusInfoV2 item exist for the same
   body part with a failInfo field.

   All entities MUST implement the HTTP transport mechanism as defined
   in [CMC-TRANS].  Other transport mechanisms MAY be implemented.

4.1.  Cryptographic Algorithm Requirements

   All entities MUST verify DSA-SHA1 and RSA-SHA1 signatures in
   SignedData (see [CMS-ALG]).  Entities MAY verify other signature
   algorithms.  It is strongly suggested that RSA-PSS with SHA-1 be
   verified (see [CMS-RSA-PSS]).  It is strongly suggested that SHA-256
   using RSA and RSA-PSS be verified (see [RSA-256]).

   All entities MUST generate either DSA-SHA1 or RSA-SHA1 signatures for
   SignedData (see [CMS-ALG]).  Other signatures algorithms MAY be used
   for generation.

   All entities MUST support Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) as the
   content encryption algorithm for EnvelopedData (see [CMS-AES]).
   Other content encryption algorithms MAY be implemented.

   All entities MUST support RSA as a key transport algorithm for
   EnvelopedData (see [CMS-ALG]).  All entities SHOULD support RSA-OAEP
   (see [CMS-RSA-OAEP]) as a key transport algorithm.  Other key
   transport algorithms MAY be implemented.

   If an entity supports key agreement for EnvelopedData, it MUST
   support Diffie-Hellman (see [CMS-DH]).

   If an entity supports PasswordRecipientInfo for EnvelopedData or
   AuthenticatedData, it MUST support PBKDF2 [PBKDF2] for key derivation
   algorithms.  It MUST support AES key wrap (see [AES-WRAP] as the key
   encryption algorithm.

   If AuthenticatedData is supported, PasswordRecipientInfo MUST be
   supported.

Schaad & Myers              Standards Track                     [Page 4]
RFC 5274                    CMC: Compliance                    June 2008

   Algorithm requirements for the Identity Proof Version 2 control
   (Section 6.2.1 of [CMC-STRUCT]) are: SHA-1 MUST be implemented for
   hashAlgId.  SHA-256 SHOULD be implemented for hashAlgId.  HMAC-SHA1
   MUST be implemented for macAlgId.  HMAC-SHA256 SHOULD be implemented
   for macAlgId.

   Algorithm requirements for the Pop Link Witness Version 2 control
   (Section 6.3.1 of [CMC-STRUCT]) are: SHA-1 MUST be implemented for
   keyGenAlgorithm.  SHA-256 SHOULD be implemented for keyGenAlgorithm.
   PBKDF2 [PBKDF2] MAY be implemented for keyGenAlgorithm.  HMAC-SHA1
   MUST be implemented for macAlgorithm.  HMAC-SHA256 SHOULD be
   implemented for macAlgorithm.

   Algorithm requirements for the Encrypted POP and Decrypted POP
   controls (Section 6.7 of [CMC-STRUCT]) are: SHA-1 MUST be implemented
   for witnessAlgID.  SHA-256 SHOULD be implemented for witnessAlgID.
   HMAC-SHA1 MUST be implemented for thePOPAlgID.  HMAC-SHA256 SHOULD be
   implemented for thePOPAlgID.

   Algorithm requirements for Publish Trust Anchors control (Section
   6.15 of [CMC-STRUCT]) are: SHA-1 MUST be implemented for
   hashAlgorithm.  SHA-256 SHOULD be implemented for hashAlgorithm.

   If an EE generates DH keys for certification, it MUST support section
   4 of [DH-POP].  EEs MAY support Section 3 of [DH-POP].  CAs and RAs
   that do POP verification MUST support Section 4 of [DH-POP] and
   SHOULD support Section 3 of [DH-POP].

   EEs that need to use a signature algorithm for keys that cannot
   produce a signature MUST support Appendix C of [CMC-STRUCT] and MUST
   support the Encrypted/Decrypted POP controls.  CAs and RAs that do
   POP verification MUST support this signature algorithm and MUST
   support the Encrypted/Decrypted POP controls.

Schaad & Myers              Standards Track                     [Page 5]
RFC 5274                    CMC: Compliance                    June 2008

4.2.  Controls

   The following table lists the name and level of support required for
   each control.

      +----------------------------+----------+----------+----------+
      | Control                    | EE       | RA       | CA       |
      +----------------------------+----------+----------+----------+
      | Extended CMC Status Info   | MUST     | MUST     | MUST     |
      |                            |          |          |          |
      | CMC Status Info            | SHOULD   | SHOULD   | SHOULD   |
      |                            |          |          |          |
      | Identity Proof Version 2   | MUST     | MUST     | MUST     |
      |                            |          |          |          |
      | Identity Proof             | SHOULD   | SHOULD   | SHOULD   |
      |                            |          |          |          |
      | Identification             | MUST     | MUST     | MUST     |
      |                            |          |          |          |
      | POP Link Random            | MUST     | MUST     | MUST     |
      |                            |          |          |          |
      | POP Link Witness Version 2 | MUST     | MUST     | MUST     |
      |                            |          |          |          |
      | POP Link Witness           | SHOULD   | MUST     | MUST     |
      |                            |          |          |          |
      | Data Return                | MUST     | MUST     | MUST     |
      |                            |          |          |          |
      | Modify Cert Request        | N/A      | MUST     | (2)      |
      |                            |          |          |          |
      | Add Extensions             | N/A      | MAY      | (1)      |
      |                            |          |          |          |
      | Transaction ID             | MUST     | MUST     | MUST     |
      |                            |          |          |          |
      | Sender Nonce               | MUST     | MUST     | MUST     |
      |                            |          |          |          |
      | Recipient Nonce            | MUST     | MUST     | MUST     |
      |                            |          |          |          |
      | Encrypted POP              | (4)      | (5)      | SHOULD   |
      |                            |          |          |          |
      | Decrypted POP              | (4)      | (5)      | SHOULD   |
      |                            |          |          |          |
      | RA POP Witness             | N/A      | SHOULD   | (1)      |
      |                            |          |          |          |
      | Get Certificate            | optional | optional | optional |
      |                            |          |          |          |
      | Get CRL                    | optional | optional | optional |
      |                            |          |          |          |
      | Revocation Request         | SHOULD   | SHOULD   | MUST     |
      |                            |          |          |          |

Schaad & Myers              Standards Track                     [Page 6]
RFC 5274                    CMC: Compliance                    June 2008

      | Registration Info          | SHOULD   | SHOULD   | SHOULD   |
      |                            |          |          |          |
      | Response Information       | SHOULD   | SHOULD   | SHOULD   |
      |                            |          |          |          |
      | Query Pending              | MUST     | MUST     | MUST     |
      |                            |          |          |          |
      | Confirm Cert.  Acceptance  | MUST     | MUST     | MUST     |
      |                            |          |          |          |
      | Publish Trust Anchors      | (3)      | (3)      | (3)      |
      |                            |          |          |          |
      | Authenticate Data          | (3)      | (3)      | (3)      |
      |                            |          |          |          |
      | Batch Request              | N/A      | MUST     | (2)      |
      |                            |          |          |          |
      | Batch Responses            | N/A      | MUST     | (2)      |
      |                            |          |          |          |
      | Publication Information    | optional | optional | optional |
      |                            |          |          |          |
      | Control Processed          | N/A      | MUST     | (2)      |
      +----------------------------+----------+----------+----------+

                      Table 1: CMC Control Attributes

   Notes:

   1.  CAs SHOULD implement this control if designed to work with RAs.

   2.  CAs MUST implement this control if designed to work with RAs.

   3.  Implementation is optional for these controls.  We strongly
       suggest that they be implemented in order to populate client
       trust anchors.

   4.  EEs only need to implement this if (a) they support key agreement
       algorithms or (b) they need to operate in environments where the
       hardware keys cannot provide POP.

   5.  RAs SHOULD implement this if they implement RA POP Witness.

   Strong consideration should be given to implementing the Authenticate
   Data and Publish Trust Anchors controls as this gives a simple method
   for distributing trust anchors into clients without user
   intervention.

Schaad & Myers              Standards Track                     [Page 7]
RFC 5274                    CMC: Compliance                    June 2008

4.3.  CRMF Feature Requirements

   The following additional restrictions are placed on CRMF features:

   The registration control tokens id-regCtrl-regToken and id-regCtrl-
   authToken MUST NOT be used.  No specific CMC feature is used to
   replace these items, but generally the CMC controls identification
   and identityProof will perform the same service and are more
   specifically defined.

   The control token id-regCtrl-pkiArchiveOptions SHOULD NOT be
   supported.  An alternative method is under development to provide
   this functionality.

   The behavior of id-regCtrl-oldCertID is not presently used.  It is
   replaced by issuing the new certificate and using the id-cmc-
   publishCert to remove the old certificate from publication.  This
   operation would not normally be accompanied by an immediate
   revocation of the old certificate; however, that can be accomplished
   by the id-cmc-revokeRequest control.

   The id-regCtrl-protocolEncrKey is not used.

4.4.  Requirements for Clients

   There are no additional requirements.

5.  Requirements for Servers

   There are no additional requirements.

6.  Requirements for EEs

   If an entity implements Diffie-Hellman, it MUST implement either the
   DH-POP Proof-of-Possession as defined in [DH-POP], Section 4, or the
   challenge-response POP controls id-cmc-encryptedPOP and id-cmc-
   decryptedPOP.

7.  Requirements for RAs

   RAs SHOULD be able to do delegated POP.  RAs implementing this
   feature MUST implement the id-cmc-lraPOPWitness control.

   All RAs MUST implement the promotion of the id-aa-cmc-unsignedData as
   covered in Section 3.2.3 of [CMC-STRUCT].

Schaad & Myers              Standards Track                     [Page 8]
RFC 5274                    CMC: Compliance                    June 2008

8.  Requirements for CAs

   Providing for CAs to work in an environment with RAs is strongly
   suggested.  Implementation of such support is strongly suggested as
   this permits the delegation of substantial administrative interaction
   onto an RA rather than at the CA.

   CAs MUST perform at least minimal checks on all public keys before
   issuing a certificate.  At a minimum, a check for syntax would occur
   with the POP operation.  Additionally, CAs SHOULD perform simple
   checks for known bad keys such as small subgroups for DSA-SHA1 and DH
   keys [SMALL-SUB-GROUP] or known bad exponents for RSA keys.

   CAs MUST enforce POP checking before issuing any certificate.  CAs
   MAY delegate the POP operation to an RA for those cases where 1) a
   challenge/response message pair must be used, 2) an RA performs
   escrow of a key and checks for POP in that manner, or 3) an unusual
   algorithm is used and that validation is done at the RA.

   CAs SHOULD implement both the DH-POP Proof-of-Possession as defined
   in [DH-POP], Section 4, and the challenge-response POP controls id-
   cmc-encryptedPOP and id-cmc-decryptedPOP.

9.  Security Considerations

   This document uses [CMC-STRUCT] and [CMC-TRANS] as building blocks to
   this document.  The security sections of those two documents are
   included by reference.

   Knowledge of how an entity is expected to operate is vital in
   determining which sections of requirements are applicable to that
   entity.  Care needs to be taken in determining which sections apply
   and fully implementing the necessary code.

   Cryptographic algorithms have and will be broken or weakened.
   Implementers and users need to check that the cryptographic
   algorithms listed in this document make sense from a security level.
   The IETF from time to time may issue documents dealing with the
   current state of the art.  Two examples of such documents are
   [SMALL-SUB-GROUP] and [HASH-ATTACKS].

10.  Acknowledgements

   The authors and the PKIX Working Group are grateful for the
   participation of Xiaoyi Liu and Jeff Weinstein in helping to author
   the original versions of this document.

Schaad & Myers              Standards Track                     [Page 9]
RFC 5274                    CMC: Compliance                    June 2008

   The authors would like to thank Brian LaMacchia for his work in
   developing and writing up many of the concepts presented in this
   document.  The authors would also like to thank Alex Deacon and Barb
   Fox for their contributions.

11.  References

11.1.  Normative References

   [CMC-STRUCT]       Schaad, J. and M. Myers, "Certificate Management
                      over CMS (CMC)", RFC 5272, June 2008.

   [CMC-TRANS]        Schaad, J. and M. Myers, "Certificate Management
                      over CMS (CMC): Transport Protocols", RFC 5273,
                      June 2008.

   [CMS]              Housley, R., "Cryptographic Message Syntax (CMS)",
                      RFC 3852, July 2004.

   [CMS-AES]          Schaad, J., "Use of the Advanced Encryption
                      Standard (AES) Encryption Algorithm in
                      Cryptographic Message Syntax (CMS)", RFC 3565,
                      July 2003.

   [CMS-ALG]          Housley, R., "Cryptographic Message Syntax (CMS)
                      Algorithms", RFC 3370, August 2002.

   [CMS-DH]           Rescorla, E., "Diffie-Hellman Key Agreement
                      Method", RFC 2631, June 1999.

   [CRMF]             Schaad, J., "Internet X.509 Public Key
                      Infrastructure Certificate Request Message Format
                      (CRMF)", RFC 4211, September 2005.

   [CMS-RSA-OAEP]     Housley, R., "Use of the RSAES-OAEP Key Transport
                      Algorithm in the Cryptographic Message Syntax
                      (CMS)", RFC 3560, July 2003.

   [CMS-RSA-PSS]      Schaad, J., "Use of the RSASSA-PSS Signature
                      Algorithm in Cryptographic Message Syntax (CMS)",
                      RFC 4056, June 2005.

   [DH-POP]           Prafullchandra, H. and J. Schaad, "Diffie-Hellman
                      Proof-of-Possession Algorithms", RFC 2875,
                      June 2000.

Schaad & Myers              Standards Track                    [Page 10]
RFC 5274                    CMC: Compliance                    June 2008

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

   [RSA-256]          Schaad, J., Kaliski, B., and R. Housley,
                      "Additional Algorithms and Identifiers for RSA
                      Cryptography for use in the Internet X.509 Public
                      Key Infrastructure Certificate and Certificate
                      Revocation List (CRL) Profile", RFC 4055,
                      June 2005.

   [PBKDF2]           Kaliski, B., "PKCS #5: Password-Based Cryptography
                      Specification Version 2.0", RFC 2898,
                      September 2000.

   [AES-WRAP]         Schaad, J. and R. Housley, "Advanced Encryption
                      Standard (AES) Key Wrap Algorithm", RFC 3394,
                      September 2002.

11.2.  Informative References

   [PKCS10]           Nystrom, M. and B. Kaliski, "PKCS #10:
                      Certification Request Syntax Specification v1.7",
                      RFC 2986, November 2000.

   [SMALL-SUB-GROUP]  Zuccherato, R., "Methods for Avoiding the "Small-
                      Subgroup" Attacks on the Diffie-Hellman Key
                      Agreement Method for S/MIME", RFC 2785,
                      March 2000.

   [HASH-ATTACKS]     Hoffman, P. and B. Schneier, "Attacks on
                      Cryptographic Hashes in Internet Protocols",
                      RFC 4270, November 2005.

Schaad & Myers              Standards Track                    [Page 11]
RFC 5274                    CMC: Compliance                    June 2008

Authors' Addresses

   Jim Schaad
   Soaring Hawk Consulting
   PO Box 675
   Gold Bar, WA  98251

   Phone: (425) 785-1031
   EMail: jimsch@nwlink.com

   Michael Myers
   TraceRoute Security, Inc.

   EMail: mmyers@fastq.com

Schaad & Myers              Standards Track                    [Page 12]
RFC 5274                    CMC: Compliance                    June 2008

Full Copyright Statement

   Copyright (C) The IETF Trust (2008).

   This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions
   contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors
   retain all their rights.

   This document and the information contained herein are provided on an
   "AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE REPRESENTS
   OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY, THE IETF TRUST AND
   THE INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS
   OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF
   THE INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED
   WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Intellectual Property

   The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any
   Intellectual Property Rights or other rights that might be claimed to
   pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in
   this document or the extent to which any license under such rights
   might or might not be available; nor does it represent that it has
   made any independent effort to identify any such rights.  Information
   on the procedures with respect to rights in RFC documents can be
   found in BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Copies of IPR disclosures made to the IETF Secretariat and any
   assurances of licenses to be made available, or the result of an
   attempt made to obtain a general license or permission for the use of
   such proprietary rights by implementers or users of this
   specification can be obtained from the IETF on-line IPR repository at
   http://www.ietf.org/ipr.

   The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any
   copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary
   rights that may cover technology that may be required to implement
   this standard.  Please address the information to the IETF at
   ietf-ipr@ietf.org.

Schaad & Myers              Standards Track                    [Page 13]