Device Owner Attribute
RFC 5916

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Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                         S. Turner
Request for Comments: 5916                                          IECA
Category: Informational                                        June 2010
ISSN: 2070-1721

                         Device Owner Attribute

Abstract

   This document defines the Device Owner attribute.  It indicates the
   entity (e.g., company, organization, department, agency) that owns
   the device.  This attribute may be included in public key
   certificates and attribute certificates.

Status of This Memo

   This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
   published for informational purposes.

   This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
   (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
   received public review and has been approved for publication by the
   Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Not all documents
   approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet
   Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741.

   Information about the current status of this document, any
   errata, and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
   http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5916.

Copyright Notice

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   document authors.  All rights reserved.

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   described in the Simplified BSD License.

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RFC 5916                 Device Owner Attribute                June 2010

1.  Introduction

   This document specifies the Device Owner attribute.  It indicates the
   entity (e.g., company, organization, department, agency) that owns
   the device.  This attribute is intended to be used in public key
   certificates [RFC5280] and attribute certificates [RFC5755].

   This attribute may be used in automated authorization decisions.  For
   example, when two peers are deciding whether to communicate, each
   could check that the device owner present in the other device's
   certificate is on an "approved" list.  This check is performed in
   addition to certification path validation [RFC5280].  The mechanism
   for managing the "approved" list is beyond the scope of this
   document.

   NOTE: This document does not provide an equivalent Lightweight
   Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) schema specification as this
   attribute is targeted at public key certificates [RFC5280] and
   attribute certificates [RFC5755].  Definition of an equivalent LDAP
   schema is left to a future specification.

1.1.  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 [RFC2119].

1.2.  ASN.1 Syntax Notation

   The attribute is defined using ASN.1 [X.680], [X.681], [X.682], and
   [X.683].

2.  Device Owner

   The Device Owner attribute indicates the entity (e.g., company,
   organization, department, agency) that owns the device with which
   this attribute is associated.  Device Owner is an object identifier.

   The following object identifier identifies the Device Owner
   attribute:

      id-deviceOwner OBJECT IDENTIFIER ::= {
        joint-iso-ccitt(2) country(16) us(840) organization(1) gov(101)
        dod(2) infosec(1) attributes(5) 69
      }

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RFC 5916                 Device Owner Attribute                June 2010

   The ASN.1 syntax for the Device Owner attribute is as follows:

      at-deviceOwner ATTRIBUTE ::= {
        TYPE                    OBJECT IDENTIFIER
        EQUALITY MATCHING RULE  objectIdentifierMatch
        IDENTIFIED BY           id-deviceOwner
      }

   There MUST only be one value of Device Owner associated with a
   device.  Distinct owners MUST be represented in separate
   certificates.

3. Security Considerations

   If this attribute is used as part of an authorization process, the
   procedures employed by the entity that assigns each value must ensure
   that the correct value is applied.  Including this attribute in a
   public key certificate or attribute certificate ensures the value for
   the device owner is integrity protected.

4.  Normative References

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.