Re: [pkix] Self-issued certificates

["Miller, Timothy J." <[e-mail]>]

> In a case where the end-entity certificate is a SSL certificate, after the root
> key rollover, the certification path will be as follows:
 
> old root self-signed cert --> new-with-old self-issued cert --> subordinate CA
> cert --> SSL cert

While rolling over a self-signed certificate while preserving trust is an interesting problem (to me, anyway, 'cause I'm a fan of key continuity management ;) in general practice your example chain should never occur in TLS/SSL.  Rollover messages are certificate management messages; new-with-old and old-with-new are management artifacts and not intended for path construction.

I.e., if in your example:

- Root rollover is due to pending or past root key expiration, then the "old-root" trust anchor is replaced by "new-root;" the chain terminates at "new-root" and new-with-old doesn't appear.

- Root rollover is due to root key compromise, new-with-old can't be trusted, "old-root" trust anchor must be removed, and the chain is invalid.   

-- T