[Plants] Re: I-D Action: draft-ietf-plants-merkle-tree-certs-06.txt

[Corey Bonnell <[e-mail]>]

Hello,
I was glad to see that a new (temporary) OID was assigned for the TrustAnchorID attribute type to reduce confusion caused by the switch from UTF8String to RELATIVE-OID.

Given that the wire format of the MTCProof has changed (signatures field can now be up to 16 MB in size instead of 64KB), it would be good to assign a new temporary OID for id-alg-MTCProof to similarly reduce confusion.
Could this be done in a fast follow-up -07?
Thanks,
Corey



Sep 21, 2026, 16:58 by [e-mail]:

> Hi buds!
>
> Here is a cutting of draft-06 from the main branch. Here's a copy of the changelog. Implementations are starting to sprout, so things have shifted to rooting out the last few issues in advance of a concrete target for the first real deployments. Here's the changelog, reproduced from the appendix:
>
> * Use 24-bit length prefix for MTCProof subtree signatures.
> * Renamed MerkleTreeCertEntry, etc., structures to MTCLogEntry to be consistent with MTCProof, shorter, and help disambiguate the many English meanings of "entry".
> * Fixed one of the accumulated test vectors to better reflect one of the edge cases in subtree covering.
> * Make empty subtrees valid, so the subtree covering function always returns two subtrees.
> * Add an informative reference to the MTC-TLOG profile (> c2sp.org/mtc-tlog <http://c2sp.org/mtc-tlog>> ) and mention it where tile-based logs are discussed.
> * Clarify that a landmark consists of both a number and a tree size, and that a landmark's subtrees share its landmark number.
> * Give an exact procedure for selecting the landmark and covering subtree when constructing a landmark-relative certificate.
> * Prune the pruning discussion. It's really a property of the log serving protocol and is better described in [MTC-TLOG] and [TLOG-TILES].
> * Fix the maximum log index to account for also end being 48-bit.
> * Discuss a potential overflow in the valid subtree definition.
> * Describe how a party holding a standalone certificate can construct the corresponding landmark-relative certificate itself.
> * Added test vectors for subtree algorithms in larger trees.
> * Align the experimental OID with the final one in the X.509 name construction in using RELATIVE-OID directly.
> * Lifted the tree hash into the MTC CA extension OID, so it can capture new tree constructions more generally.
> * Update for draft-ietf-tls-trust-anchor-ids-05, and spell out certificate configuration explicitly.
> * Define active landmarks around landmark expiry and put the expiry time in the landmark format.
> * Fix an interaction between landmark-relative certs and TLS certificate_authorities.
>
> A peony for your thoughts,
>
> David
>
> On Mon, Sep 21, 2026 at 4:51 PM <> [e-mail]> > wrote:
>
>> Internet-Draft draft-ietf-plants-merkle-tree-certs-06.txt is now available. It
>>  is a work item of the PKI, Logs, And Tree Signatures (PLANTS) WG of the IETF.
>>  
>>     Title:   Merkle Tree Certificates
>>     Authors: David Benjamin
>>              Devon O'Brien
>>              Bas Westerbaan
>>              Luke Valenta
>>              Filippo Valsorda
>>     Name:    draft-ietf-plants-merkle-tree-certs-06.txt
>>     Pages:   104
>>     Dates:   2026-09-21
>>  
>>  Abstract:
>>  
>>     This document describes Merkle Tree certificates, a new form of X.509
>>     certificates which integrate public logging of the certificate, in
>>     the style of Certificate Transparency.  The integrated design reduces
>>     logging overhead in the face of both shorter-lived certificates and
>>     large post-quantum signature algorithms, while still achieving
>>     comparable security properties to existing X.509 constructions and
>>     Certificate Transparency.  Merkle Tree certificates additionally
>>     admit an optional size optimization that avoids signatures
>>     altogether, at the cost of only applying to up-to-date relying
>>     parties and older certificates.
>>  
>>  The IETF datatracker status page for this Internet-Draft is:
>>  >> https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-plants-merkle-tree-certs/
>>  
>>  There is also an HTML version available at:
>>  >> https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-ietf-plants-merkle-tree-certs-06.html
>>  
>>  A diff from the previous version is available at:
>>  >> https://author-tools.ietf.org/iddiff?url2=draft-ietf-plants-merkle-tree-certs-06
>>  
>>  Internet-Drafts are also available by rsync at:
>>  rsync.ietf.org::internet-drafts
>>  
>>  
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