Re: [pkix] Self-issued certificates

[王文正 <[e-mail]>]

Hi Martin,

Regarding your simile of "key rollover with self-issued certificates" as "the use of anti-personnel land mines", I appreciate your sense of humor.

However, since "key rollover with self-issued certificates" is the standard method suggested by X.509 and PKIX, your simile seems to implies both X.509 and PKIX are violating the 1997 UN convention. Do you really mean that? :)

I believe the philosophy of X.509 (or the whole X.500 series) is that a Distinguished Name (DN) represents the identity of an entity. Therefore, if the DN is changed, it means the identity of that entity has been changed. With this philosophy, the DN of each entity should not be changed unless its identity is changed. Especially, a root CA is the trust anchor, which should not change its DN between generations of CA keys, otherwise relying parties will be confused about whether they are the same root CA entity.
It is unfortunately that many COTS have not yet fully implement the certification path validation algorithm specified in X.509 or RFC 5280, therefore many root CAs choosed to change their DNs whenever they performed key rollovers. They actually bred logically new root CAs whenever they doing so. As a result, there were more and more root CAs created. Please take a look at trust lists maintained by browsers, Those lists are really messy adn it is hard to tell which one is which.

Wen-Cheng Wang

-----Original Message-----
From: Martin Rex [mailto:[e-mail]]
Sent: Tuesday, July 14, 2015 12:32 AM
To: 王文正
Cc: PKIX
Subject: Re: [pkix] Self-issued certificates

A CA which attempts to perform key rollover with self-issued certificates is violating the 1997 UN convention on the prohibition on the use of anti-personel land mines.

Public CAs seem to do it properly and safely, and include a generation identifier in the subject DNames of new CA keys.

Do not be surprised if your attempts to use self-issued certificates fail with other PKI software as well.

-Martin

Please be advised that this email message (including any attachments) contains confidential information and may be legally privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, please destroy this message and all attachments from your system and do not further collect, process, or use them. Chunghwa Telecom and all its subsidiaries and associated companies shall not be liable for the improper or incomplete transmission of the information contained in this email nor for any delay in its receipt or damage to your system. If you are the intended recipient, please protect the confidential and/or personal information contained in this email with due care. Any unauthorized use, disclosure or distribution of this message in whole or in part is strictly prohibited.  Also, please self-inspect attachments and hyperlinks contained in this email to ensure the information security and to protect personal information.