Subject: New CSR schemes - Requirements

From: "Anders Rundgren" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 9 Aug 2005 23:33:18 +0200

Gentlemen,
Since you have both expressed interest in revised CSR schemes,
you may want to look at a recent counterpart for OTP tokens:

http://www.rsasecurity.com/rsalabs/node.asp?id=2817

Compared to PKCS #10 and CRMF, CT-KIP is:
1. XML based
2. Multi pass

That is, revising existing RFCs is not likely to be a good idea since
on-line certification needs multi-pass protocols in order to support
users with limited, or no knowledge of PKI.  Certificate renewal
also requires mult-pass including an atomic replacement operation.

A difference with on-line certification schemes compared to for example
the creation of web-server certificates is that in the former case the CA
is usually the originator of all vital information including key length, subject
DN etc.  This is principally about the opposite of PKCS #10 and CRMF.

So IMHO a new CSR scheme should [at least] allow the CA to define
- key length and type
- PIN/passphrase policy
- key export policy
- All but the public key of the EE certificate(s) to be generated

As well as optionally requiring HW key container PoP & ID.

The goal must be to eliminate as much as possible, any requirements on
the user regarding answering questions that they would never have to
bother with if they got a token distributed in a physical form, while still
providing for a secure process.

Using XML it would not be a PKIX work item.  PKIX is also said to
be shutting down so in case you are interested in such a task we must
find another home for it.

Comments?

Anders Rundgren