Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI) Trust Anchor Locator
RFC 6490

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Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                         G. Huston
Request for Comments: 6490                                         APNIC
Category: Standards Track                                      S. Weiler
ISSN: 2070-1721                                             SPARTA, Inc.
                                                           G. Michaelson
                                                                   APNIC
                                                                 S. Kent
                                                                     BBN
                                                           February 2012

     Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI) Trust Anchor Locator

Abstract

   This document defines a Trust Anchor Locator (TAL) for the Resource
   Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI).

Status of This Memo

   This is an Internet Standards Track document.

   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).  Further information on
   Internet Standards is available in 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/rfc6490.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2012 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Huston, et al.               Standards Track                    [Page 1]
RFC 6490                RPKI Trust Anchor Locator          February 2012

Table of Contents

   1. Introduction ....................................................2
      1.1. Terminology ................................................2
   2. Trust Anchor Locator ............................................2
      2.1. Trust Anchor Locator Format ................................2
      2.2. TAL and Trust Anchor Certificate Considerations ............3
      2.3. Example ....................................................4
   3. Relying Party Use ...............................................5
   4. Security Considerations .........................................5
   5. Acknowledgments .................................................6
   6. References ......................................................6
      6.1. Normative References .......................................6
      6.2. Informative References .....................................6

1.  Introduction

   This document defines a Trust Anchor Locator (TAL) for the Resource
   Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI) [RFC6480].  This format may be used
   to distribute trust anchor material using a mix of out-of-band and
   online means.  Procedures used by Relying Parties (RPs) to verify
   RPKI signed objects SHOULD support this format to facilitate
   interoperability between creators of trust anchor material and RPs.

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].

2.  Trust Anchor Locator

2.1.  Trust Anchor Locator Format

   This document does not propose a new format for trust anchor
   material.  A trust anchor in the RPKI is represented by a self-signed
   X.509 Certification Authority (CA) certificate, a format commonly
   used in PKIs and widely supported by RP software.  This document
   specifies a format for data used to retrieve and verify the
   authenticity of a trust anchor in a very simple fashion.  That data
   is referred to as the TAL.

   The motivation for defining the TAL is to enable selected data in the
   trust anchor to change, without needing to effect redistribution of
   the trust anchor per se.  In the RPKI, certificates contain
   extensions that represent Internet Number Resources (INRs) [RFC3779].
   The set of INRs associated with an entity likely will change over
   time.  Thus, if one were to use the common PKI convention of

Huston, et al.               Standards Track                    [Page 2]
RFC 6490                RPKI Trust Anchor Locator          February 2012

   distributing a trust anchor to RPs in a secure fashion, this
   procedure would need to be repeated whenever the INR set for the