Subject: v1.4 Enhanced SNACC Freeware Now Available

From: "Pawling, John" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 1 Aug 2002 12:48:34 -0400

All,

Getronics Government Solutions has delivered the v1.4 eSNACC
Abstract Syntax Notation.1 (ASN.1) Compiler, C++ library and C library
source code compilable for Linux, Sun Solaris 2.8 and Microsoft (MS) 
Windows NT/98/2000/XP.  The eSNACC software is freely available to
everyone from: <http://www.getronicsgov.com/hot/snacc_home.htm>.

The eSNACC ASN.1 software can be used to ASN.1 encode and decode
objects.  In past releases, Getronics improved the eSNACC C++ 
library to implement the Distinguished Encoding Rules (DER), 
support large ASN.1 INTEGERs, and improve memory usage.    

v1.4 eSNACC enhancements (compared to v1.3 R10 release):

1) Enhanced AsnInt class to support string form of large 
integers (binary & hex strings).   

2) Enhances AsnInt so that it does not use AsnOcts or 
CSM_Buffer. 

3) Remove CSM_Buffer as base class for AsnInt and all of 
the string classes.  Also deleted the xxxStringSNACC 
classes (i.e., BMPStringSNACC).  

4) Added the remaining asn-useful types (UTCTime, 
GeneralizedTime, etc.) into eSNACC C and C++ libraries as
native built-in types.  This removes the unnecessary
complexity of having to build a boot compiler prior to 
building the final compiler.

5) Enhanced to use a standard Exception class derived from the
C++ std::exception class that will enable applications to catch 
all exceptions using the standard class.  This enhancement will 
reduce the amount of time required to integrate the SFL, CML, ACL,
and eSNACC libraries into applications.  

6) Re-wrote makefiles to make build process easier and faster.

7) Enhanced AsnBits class to construct BitStrings from 
binary strings.

8) Added AsnSetOf and AsnSeqOf templates.

9) Moved BDecPdu to AsnType, so every type as access to it now.
This was done to reduce the number of symbols & methods the
compiler generates.
  
10) Enhanced compiler to remove -u switch because useful types
are now in the runtime library.

We successfully tested the v1.4 eSNACC ASN.1 C++ and C libraries
using the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) v1 test
suite (18,000 test cases) developed by the University of Oulu.    

We tested the v1.4 eSNACC release with the v2.1 S/MIME
Freeware Library (SFL) available from 
<http://www.getronicsgov.com/hot/sfl_home.htm> that 
uses the eSNACC ASN.1 software to encode and decode the IETF 
S/MIME v3 Cryptographic Message Syntax (RFC 2630) and Enhanced
Security Services for S/MIME (RFC 2634) security protocol.  

We tested the v1.4 eSNACC release with the freeware v2.1
Certificate Management Library (CML) available from
<http://www.getronicsgov.com/hot/cml_home.htm> 
that uses the eSNACC ASN.1 software to encode and decode X.509 
certificates, attribute certificates and Certificate Revocation 
Lists as specified in the 2000 X.509 Recommendation.

We tested the v1.4 eSNACC release with the freeware v2.1 
Access Control Library (ACL) available from 
<http://www.getronicsgov.com/hot/acl_home.htm>
that uses the eSNACC ASN.1 software to encode and decode security
labels and other objects (such as Security Policy Information 
Files) required to provide rule based automated access control 
as specified in SDN.801.

The eSNACC ASN.1 software implements the majority of the 
ASN.1 encoding/decoding rules as specified in the 1988 X.209 
Recommendation.  It implements the DER as specified in the 1997 
X.690 Recommendation.  It does not support all of the latest ASN.1
features, but there are strategies that allow it to be used to 
produce ASN.1 hex encodings that are identical to those produced by
ASN.1 libraries that do support the latest ASN.1 features.  Also note
that many of the PKIX specs, such as RFC 3280 and RFC 2630, include 
1988-compliant ASN.1 syntax modules which can be compiled using the
eSNACC compiler.  Getronics plans to enhance eSNACC to support 
additional ASN.1 features.

The eSNACC ASN.1 library is totally unencumbered as stated 
in the Enhanced SNACC Software Public License.  All source code
for the eSNACC software is being provided at no cost and with no
financial limitations regarding its use and distribution.  
Organizations can use the eSNACC software without paying
any royalties or licensing fees.  

The Internet Mail Consortium (IMC) has established an eSNACC
web page <http://www.imc.org/imc-snacc/>.  The IMC has established 
an eSNACC mail list which is used to: distribute information 
regarding eSNACC releases; discuss related issues; and 
provide a means for integrators to provide feedback, comments,
bug reports, etc.  Subscription information for the imc-snacc
mail list is at the IMC web site listed above.

We welcome all feedback regarding the eSNACC software.
If bugs are reported, then we will investigate each reported
bug and, if required, will produce a patch or an updated
release of the software to repair the bug. 

This release announcement was sent to several mail lists,
but please send all messages regarding the eSNACC 
software to the imc-snacc mail list ONLY.  Please do not send 
messages regarding the eSNACC software to any of the 
IETF mail lists.  We will respond to all messages sent to the
imc-snacc mail list.

===========================================
John Pawling, [email-masked]
Getronics Government Solutions, LLC
===========================================