Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure -- HTTP Transfer for the Certificate Management Protocol (CMP)
RFC 6712

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Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                          T. Kause
Request for Comments: 6712                                           SSH
Updates: 4210                                                   M. Peylo
Category: Standards Track                                            NSN
ISSN: 2070-1721                                           September 2012

       Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure -- HTTP Transfer
             for the Certificate Management Protocol (CMP)

Abstract

   This document describes how to layer the Certificate Management
   Protocol (CMP) over HTTP.  It is the "CMPtrans" document referenced
   in RFC 4210; therefore, this document updates the reference given
   therein.

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/rfc6712.

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.

Kause & Peylo                Standards Track                    [Page 1]
RFC 6712                        CMPtrans                  September 2012

   This document may contain material from IETF Documents or IETF
   Contributions published or made publicly available before November
   10, 2008.  The person(s) controlling the copyright in some of this
   material may not have granted the IETF Trust the right to allow
   modifications of such material outside the IETF Standards Process.
   Without obtaining an adequate license from the person(s) controlling
   the copyright in such materials, this document may not be modified
   outside the IETF Standards Process, and derivative works of it may
   not be created outside the IETF Standards Process, except to format
   it for publication as an RFC or to translate it into languages other
   than English.

Table of Contents

   1. Introduction ....................................................2
   2. Conventions Used in This Document ...............................3
   3. HTTP-Based Protocol .............................................3
      3.1. HTTP Versions ..............................................4
      3.2. Persistent Connections .....................................4
      3.3. General Form ...............................................4
      3.4. Media Type .................................................4
      3.5. Communication Workflow .....................................5
      3.6. HTTP Request-URI ...........................................5
      3.7. Pushing of Announcements ...................................5
      3.8. HTTP Considerations ........................................6
   4. Implementation Considerations ...................................7
   5. Security Considerations .........................................7
   6. IANA Considerations .............................................8
   7. Acknowledgments .................................................8
   8. References ......................................................9
      8.1. Normative References .......................................9
      8.2. Informative References .....................................9

1.  Introduction

   The Certificate Management Protocol (CMP) [RFC4210] requires a well-
   defined transfer mechanism to enable End Entities (EEs), Registration
   Authorities (RAs), and Certification Authorities (CAs) to pass
   PKIMessage sequences between them.

   The first version of the CMP specification [RFC2510] included a brief
   description of a simple transfer protocol layer on top of TCP.  Its
   features were simple transfer-level error handling and a mechanism to
   poll for outstanding PKI messages.  Additionally, it was mentioned
   that PKI messages could also be conveyed using file-, E-mail-, and
   HTTP-based transfer, but those were not specified in detail.

Kause & Peylo                Standards Track                    [Page 2]
RFC 6712                        CMPtrans                  September 2012