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Re: LDAP Certificate transfer syntax



Mark

We are not dropping the ;binary option, you can still use it, but its
functionality is redundant as the "native" LDAP encoding is BER.

To put the other view, I have heard that some other LDAPv3 directories
are unable to accept the ;binary option anyway. So what I am now arguing
for is leniency on the part of servers, that they neither demand nor
reject the use of ;binary, but just ignore it if it is there.

David


Mark C Smith wrote:
> 
> I am still concerned about how dropping the ;binary transfer option that
> was mandated by RFC 2252 will affect the large installed base of LDAPv3
> and PKI implementations (of course some PKI clients are already trying
> to use userCertificate without ;binary with LDAPv3 implementations, and
> not surprisingly there are having a difficult time).
> 
> But if consensus is to proceed with this proposal, then I think the
> conflict with RFC 2252 should be noted in the PKIX document (there is a
> lot of history behind all of this, and implementors and users who do not
> know all of it will undoubtedly be confused).
> 
> -Mark Smith
>   Netscape
> 
> David Chadwick wrote:
> > Colleagues
> >
> > Here is my proposed change to the section describing the LDAP syntax for
> > cerificates in the PKIX id
> > <draft-pkix-ldap-schema-03.txt> which should be published before the end
> > of April. As this is likely to be the most contentious part of the new
> > ID, I thought it would be useful to distribute this text at the earlier
> > possible moment.
> >
> > All constructive comments welcomed
> >
> > David
> >
> >
> > 3.3  Certificate Syntax
> >
> > A value in this transfer syntax is the binary octet string that results
> > from BER or DER-encoding of an X.509 public key certificate.  The
> > following string states the OID assigned to this syntax:
> >
> >       ( 1.3.6.1.4.1.1466.115.121.1.8 DESC 'Certificate' )
> >
> > Servers must preserve values in this syntax exactly as given when
> > storing and retrieving them.
> >
> > Note. Due to the changes from X.509(1988) to X.509(1993) and subsequent
> > changes to the ASN.1 definition to support certificate extensions in
> > X.509(1997), no character string transfer syntax is defined for
> > certificates. The BNF notation in RFC 1778 [12] for "User Certificate"
> > MUST NOT be used. Values in this syntax MUST be transferred as BER or
> > DER encoded octets. The use of the ;binary encoding option, i.e. by
> > requesting or returning the attributes with descriptions
> > "userCertificate;binary" or "caCertificate;binary" has no effect on the
> > transfer syntax.

-- 
*****************************************************************

David W. Chadwick, BSc PhD
Professor of Information Systems Security
IS Institute, University of Salford, Salford M5 4WT
Tel: +44 161 295 5351  Fax +44 161 745 8169
Mobile: +44 77 96 44 7184
Email: D.W.Chadwick@salford.ac.uk
Home Page:  http://www.salford.ac.uk/its024/chadwick.htm
Research Projects: http://sec.isi.salford.ac.uk
Understanding X.500:  http://www.salford.ac.uk/its024/X500.htm
X.500/LDAP Seminars: http://www.salford.ac.uk/its024/seminars.htm
Entrust key validation string: MLJ9-DU5T-HV8J
PGP Key ID is 0xBC238DE5

*****************************************************************
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