Re: [Acme] Revocation via ACME using pre-signed artifact

[Matt Palmer <[e-mail]>]

On Mon, Jun 22, 2020 at 07:15:03PM -0700, Roland Shoemaker wrote:
> In general I think this is a good idea. It's a concept that has been
> discussed in a handful of venues in the past, and would certainly be a good
> thing to have.
> 
> That said I'm not _entirely_ sure that ACME is the right place to specify
> it. I think tying such a mechanism too closely to ACME is, unfortunately, a
> barrier to getting the method adopted elsewhere. If we wanted to say get
> this mechanism adopted by the CABF as a mandated revocation mechanism for
> instance I think it'd be better to define the mechanism in isolation from a
> protocol so that it could be subsumed into other APIs more easily. ACME
> could then build an endpoint extension that implemented this mechanism. I
> guess in practice we could do this in an ACME draft by
> separately specifying the mechanism and the API extension, such that the
> mechanism could be implemented independently from the API, but I worry it
> would end up being forever branded as 'an ACME thing' (which who knows, may
> not be a terrible thing).

I think what you're saying is that a standardised mechanism for generating a
"key compromise attestation" would be good -- but not necessarily something
for the ACME WG -- while a means of supplying a key compromise attestation
(whatever form it may take) to an ACME server would be a separate document
that would be suitable work for the ACME WG.  Have I got that about right?

If so, work on the two items can proceed somewhat in parallel, with the
proviso that the ACME extension could not be finalised until an attestation
format had been finalised -- until then, it'd have a big blank space, with
"insert key compromise attestation format here" in small type.  <grin>

Having reviewed the LAMPS WG charter, I think it'd be a heck of a stretch to
have a compromise attestation format adopted there without rechartering. 
But I can certainly see how the ACME WG isn't the "right place" for a
generic document specifying a format for attesting to key compromise,
either.  So in the first instance I suppose I'll work on an individual
submission for the attestation format.

- Matt