IETF 79 Proceedings

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Long-Term Archive and Notary Services (ltans) (WG)

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Additional information is available at tools.ietf.org/wg/ltans

Chair(s): Carl Wallace Tobias Gondrom Security Area Director(s): Stephen Farrell Sean Turner Security Area Advisor: Sean Turner

Meeting Slides

No Slides Present

Internet-Drafts:

• Extensible Markup Language Evidence Record Syntax (105703 bytes)

Request for Comments:

• Long-Term Archive Service Requirements (RFC 4810) (35690 bytes)
• Evidence Record Syntax (ERS) (RFC 4998) (66888 bytes)
• Using the Server-Based Certificate Validation Protocol (SCVP) to Convey Long-Term Evidence Records (RFC 5276) (27422 bytes)
• Data Structure for the Security Suitability of Cryptographic Algorithms (DSSC) (RFC 5698) (76313 bytes)

Charter (as of 2011-03-31)

In many scenarios, users need to be able to ensure and prove the
existence and validity of data, especially digitally signed data, in a
common and reproducible way over a long and possibly undetermined
period
of time.

Cryptographic means are useful, but they do not provide the whole
solution. For example, digital signatures (generated with a particular
key size) might become weak over time due to improved computational
capabilities, new cryptanalytic attacks might "break" a digital
signature algorithm, public key certificates might be revoked or
expire,
and so on.

Complementary methods covering potential weaknesses are necessary.

Long-term non-repudiation of digitally signed data is an important
aspect of PKI-related standards. Standard mechanisms are needed to
handle routine events, such as expiry of signer's public key
certificate
and expiry of trusted time stamp authority certificate. A single
timestamp is not sufficient for this purpose. Additionally, the
reliable
preservation of content across change of formats, application of
electronic notarizations, and subsequent notary services require
standard solutions.

The objective of the LTANS working group is to define requirements,
data
structures and protocols for the secure usage of the necessary archive
and notary services. First, the requirements for the long-term archive
will be collected. Based on that information we will develop a protocol
to access archive services supplying long-term non-repudiation for
signed documents and define common data structures and formats. Upon
completion of the archive-related specifications, we will address
'notary services' in a similar way. The term 'notary services' is not
clearly defined. The working group will determine which functions need
standards, including transformation of documents from one format to
another without losing the value of evidence, electronic notarization,
and further verification of legal validity of signed documents. We will
determine the needs via the requirements paper and act upon the results
accordingly.

Work done by the IETF Working Groups PKIX, S/MIME and XMLDSIG will be
used as the basis to define those structures and protocols. For
example,
the Internet-Drafts "Archive Time-Stamps Syntax (ATS)" and "Trusted
Archive Protocol (TAP)" and RFC 3029, "Data Validation and Certificate
Server Protocols (DVCS)", contain applicable concepts.

Goals and Milestones:

Done		Initial requirements for long-term archive I-D
Done		Initial data structures for long-term archive I-D
Done		Revised requirements for long-term archive I-D
Done		Revised data structures for long-term archive I-D
Done		Initial requirements for notary services I-D
Done		Initial protocol for long-term archive I-D
Done		Revised requirements for notary services I-D
Done		WG Last call requirements for long-term archive I-D
Done		Submit requirements for long-term archive to IESG as informational
Done		Submit data structures for long-term archive to IESG as proposed standard
Done		WG Last call data structures for long-term archive I-D
Nov 2007		Protocol revisions for long-term archive I-D
Feb 2008		WG Last call protocol for long-term archive I-D
Mar 2008		Submit protocol for long-term archive to IESG as proposed standard
May 2008		Recharter or close the working group