One document matched: draft-ietf-smime-3850bis-01.txt

Differences from draft-ietf-smime-3850bis-00.txt


S/MIME WG                                      Blake Ramsdell, SendMail 
Internet Draft                                        Sean Turner, IECA 
Intended Status: Standard Track                       February 21, 2008 
Obsoletes: 3850 (once approved) 
Expires: August 21, 2008 
 
 
                                      
     Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME) Version 3.2 
                           Certificate Handling 
                      draft-ietf-smime-3850bis-01.txt 


Status of this Memo 

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   This Internet-Draft will expire on August 21, 2008. 

Copyright Notice 

   Copyright (C) The IETF Trust (2008). 

Abstract 

   This document specifies conventions for X.509 certificate usage by 
   Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME) agents.  S/MIME 
   provides a method to send and receive secure MIME messages, and 
   certificates are an integral part of S/MIME agent processing.  S/MIME 
 
 
 
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   agents validate certificates as described in RFC 3280bis, the 
   Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure Certificate and CRL Profile.  
   S/MIME agents must meet the certificate processing requirements in 
   this document as well as those in RFC 3280bis. This document 
   obsoletes RFC 3850. 

Conventions used in this document 

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", 
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this 
   document are to be interpreted as described in [MUSTSHOULD]. 

   We define some additional terms here: 

     SHOULD+ This term means the same as SHOULD.  However, it is likely 
      that an algorithm marked as SHOULD+ will be promoted at some 
      future time to be a MUST. 

     SHOULD- This term means the same as SHOULD.  However, an algorithm 
      marked as SHOULD- may be deprecated to a MAY in a future version 
      of this document. 

     MUST- This term means the same as MUST.  However, we expect at some 
      point that this algorithm will no longer be a MUST in a future 
      document.  Although its status will be determined at a later 
      time, it is reasonable to expect that if a future revision of a 
      document alters the status of a MUST- algorithm, it will remain 
      at least a SHOULD or a SHOULD-. 

Discussion 

   This draft is being discussed on the 'ietf-smime' mailing list. To 
   subscribe, send a message to ietf-smime-request@imc.org with the 
   single word subscribe in the body of the message. There is a Web site 
   for the mailing list at <http://www.imc.org/ietf-smime/>. 

Table of Contents 

   1. Introduction...................................................3 
      1.1. Definitions...............................................3 
      1.2. Compatibility with Prior Practice S/MIME..................4 
      1.3. Changes Since S/MIME V3.1 (RFC 3850)......................4 
   2. CMS Options....................................................5 
      2.1. Certificate Revocation Lists..............................5 
      2.2. Certificate Choices.......................................5 
         2.2.1. Historical Note About CMS Certificates...............5 
      2.3. CertificateSet............................................6 
 
 
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   3. Using Distinguished Names For Internet Mail....................7 
   4. Certificate Processing.........................................8 
      4.1. Certificate Revocation Lists..............................9 
      4.2. Certificate Path Validation...............................9 
      4.3. Certificate and CRL Signing Algorithms...................10 
      4.4. PKIX Certificate Extensions..............................10 
         4.4.1. Basic Constraints...................................11 
         4.4.2. Key Usage Certificate Extension.....................11 
         4.4.3. Subject Alternative Name............................12 
         4.4.4. Extended Key Usage Extension........................12 
   5. IANA Considerations...........................................12 
   6. Security Considerations.......................................13 
    
1. Introduction 

   S/MIME (Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions), described in 
   [SMIME-MSG], provides a method to send and receive secure MIME 
   messages.  Before using a public key to provide security services, 
   the S/MIME agent MUST verify that the public key is valid.  S/MIME 
   agents MUST use PKIX certificates to validate public keys as 
   described in the Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure (PKIX) 
   Certificate and CRL Profile [KEYM].  S/MIME agents MUST meet the 
   certificate processing requirements documented in this document in 
   addition to those stated in [KEYM]. 

   This specification is compatible with the Cryptographic Message 
   Syntax [CMS] in that it uses the data types defined by CMS.  It also 
   inherits all the varieties of architectures for certificate-based key 
   management supported by CMS. 

1.1. Definitions 

   For the purposes of this document, the following definitions apply. 

   ASN.1: Abstract Syntax Notation One, as defined in ITU-T X.208 
   [X.208-88]. 

   Attribute Certificate (AC): An X.509 AC is a separate structure from 
   a subject's public key X.509 Certificate.  A subject may have 
   multiple X.509 ACs associated with each of its public key X.509 
   Certificates.  Each X.509 AC binds one or more Attributes with one of 
   the subject's public key X.509 Certificates.  The X.509 AC syntax is 
   defined in [ACAUTH]. 

   Certificate: A type that binds an entity's name to a public key with 
   a digital signature.  This type is defined in the Internet X.509 
   Public Key Infrastructure (PKIX) Certificate and CRL Profile [KEYM]. 
 
 
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   This type also contains the distinguished name of the certificate 
   issuer (the signer), an issuer-specific serial number, the issuer's 
   signature algorithm identifier, a validity period, and extensions 
   also defined in that document. 

   Certificate Revocation List (CRL): A type that contains information 
   about certificates whose validity an issuer has prematurely revoked. 
   The information consists of an issuer name, the time of issue, the 
   next scheduled time of issue, a list of certificate serial numbers 
   and their associated revocation times, and extensions as defined in 
   [KEYM].  The CRL is signed by the issuer.  The type intended by this 
   specification is the one defined in [KEYM]. 

   Receiving agent: Software that interprets and processes S/MIME CMS 
   objects, MIME body parts that contain CMS objects, or both. 

   Sending agent: Software that creates S/MIME CMS objects, MIME body 
   parts that contain CMS objects, or both. 

   S/MIME agent: User software that is a receiving agent, a sending 
   agent, or both. 

1.2. Compatibility with Prior Practice S/MIME 

   S/MIME version 3.2 agents should attempt to have the greatest 
   interoperability possible with agents for prior versions of S/MIME. 
   S/MIME version 2 is described in RFC 2311 through RFC 2315, inclusive 
   S/MIME version 3 is described in RFC 2630 through RFC 2634 inclusive, 
   and S/MIME version 3.1 is described in RFC 3850 through 3851 
   inclusive and RFC 2634.  RFC 2311 also has historical information 
   about the development of S/MIME. 

1.3. Changes Since S/MIME V3.1 (RFC 3850) 

   Conventions Used in This Document: Added definitions for SHOULD+, 
   SHOULD-, and MUST-. 

   Sec 1.2: Added text about v3.1 RFCs. 

   Sec 3: Updated note to indicate emailAddress IA5String upper bound is 
   255 characters. 

   Sec 4.3: RSA with SHA-256 (PKCS #1 v1.5) added as MUST, RSA with SHA-
   1 changed to MUST-, DSA with SHA-1, and RSA with MD5 changed to 
   SHOULD-, and RSA-PS with SHA-256. Updated key sizes. 


 
 
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   Sec A.1: Updated references to latest versions of PKIX profile and 
   S/MIME Message Specification. 

   Sec A.1: Changed reference from KEYMALG to KEYM. 

2. CMS Options 

   The CMS message format allows for a wide variety of options in 
   content and algorithm support.  This section puts forth a number of 
   support requirements and recommendations in order to achieve a base 
   level of interoperability among all S/MIME implementations.  Most of 
   the CMS format for S/MIME messages is defined in [SMIME-MSG]. 

2.1. Certificate Revocation Lists 

   Receiving agents MUST support the Certificate Revocation List (CRL) 
   format defined in [KEYM].  If sending agents include CRLs in outgoing 
   messages, the CRL format defined in [KEYM] MUST be used.  In all 
   cases, both v1 and v2 CRLs MUST be supported. 

   All agents MUST be capable of performing revocation checks using CRLs 
   as specified in [KEYM].  All agents MUST perform revocation status 
   checking in accordance with [KEYM].  Receiving agents MUST recognize 
   CRLs in received S/MIME messages. 

   Agents SHOULD store CRLs received in messages for use in processing 
   later messages. 

2.2. Certificate Choices 

   Receiving agents MUST support v1 X.509 and v3 X.509 identity 
   certificates as profiled in [KEYM].  End entity certificates MAY 
   include an Internet mail address, as described in section 3. 

   Receiving agents SHOULD support X.509 version 2 attribute 
   certificates.  See [ACAUTH] for details about the profile for 
   attribute certificates. 

2.2.1. Historical Note About CMS Certificates 

   The CMS message format supports a choice of certificate formats for 
   public key content types: PKIX, PKCS #6 Extended Certificates [PKCS6] 
   and PKIX Attribute Certificates. 

   The PKCS #6 format is not in widespread use.  In addition, PKIX 
   certificate extensions address much of the same functionality and 

 
 
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   flexibility as was intended in the PKCS #6.  Thus, sending and 
   receiving agents MUST NOT use PKCS #6 extended certificates. 

   X.509 version 1 attribute certificates are also not widely 
   implemented, and have been superseded with version 2 attribute 
   certificates.  Sending agents MUST NOT send version 1 attribute 
   certificates. 

2.3. CertificateSet 

   Receiving agents MUST be able to handle an arbitrary number of 
   certificates of arbitrary relationship to the message sender and to 
   each other in arbitrary order.  In many cases, the certificates 
   included in a signed message may represent a chain of certification 
   from the sender to a particular root.  There may be, however, 
   situations where the certificates in a signed message may be 
   unrelated and included for convenience. 

   Sending agents SHOULD include any certificates for the user's public 
   key(s) and associated issuer certificates.  This increases the 
   likelihood that the intended recipient can establish trust in the 
   originator's public key(s).  This is especially important when 
   sending a message to recipients that may not have access to the 
   sender's public key through any other means or when sending a signed 
   message to a new recipient.  The inclusion of certificates in 
   outgoing messages can be omitted if S/MIME objects are sent within a 
   group of correspondents that has established access to each other's 
   certificates by some other means such as a shared directory or manual 
   certificate distribution.  Receiving S/MIME agents SHOULD be able to 
   handle messages without certificates using a database or directory 
   lookup scheme. 

   A sending agent SHOULD include at least one chain of certificates up 
   to, but not including, a Certificate Authority (CA) that it believes 
   that the recipient may trust as authoritative.  A receiving agent 
   MUST be able to handle an arbitrarily large number of certificates 
   and chains. 

   Agents MAY send CA certificates, that is, certificates which can be 
   considered the "root" of other chains, and which MAY be self-signed. 
   Note that receiving agents SHOULD NOT simply trust any self-signed 
   certificates as valid CAs, but SHOULD use some other mechanism to 
   determine if this is a CA that should be trusted.  Also note that 
   when certificates contain DSA public keys the parameters may be 
   located in the root certificate.  This would require that the 
   recipient possess both the end-entity certificate as well as the root 
   certificate to perform a signature verification, and is a valid 
 
 
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   example of a case where transmitting the root certificate may be 
   required. 

   Receiving agents MUST support chaining based on the distinguished 
   name fields.  Other methods of building certificate chains MAY be 
   supported. 

   Receiving agents SHOULD support the decoding of X.509 attribute 
   certificates included in CMS objects.  All other issues regarding the 
   generation and use of X.509 attribute certificates are outside of the 
   scope of this specification.  One specification that addresses 
   attribute certificate use is defined in [SECLABEL]. 

3. Using Distinguished Names For Internet Mail 

   End-entity certificates MAY contain an Internet mail address as 
   described in [RFC-2822].  The address must be an "addr-spec" as 
   defined in Section 3.4.1 of that specification.  The email address 
   SHOULD be in the subjectAltName extension, and SHOULD NOT be in the 
   subject distinguished name. 

   Receiving agents MUST recognize and accept certificates that contain 
   no email address.  Agents are allowed to provide an alternative 
   mechanism for associating an email address with a certificate that 
   does not contain an email address, such as through the use of the 
   agent's address book, if available.  Receiving agents MUST recognize 
   email addresses in the subjectAltName field.  Receiving agents MUST 
   recognize email addresses in the Distinguished Name field in the PKCS 
   #9 [PKCS9] emailAddress attribute: 

   pkcs-9-at-emailAddress OBJECT IDENTIFIER ::= 

     {iso(1) member-body(2) us(840) rsadsi(113549) pkcs(1) pkcs-9(9) 1 } 

   Note that this attribute MUST be encoded as IA5String and has an 
   upper bounds of 255 characters. 

   Sending agents SHOULD make the address in the From or Sender header 
   in a mail message match an Internet mail address in the signer's 
   certificate.  Receiving agents MUST check that the address in the 
   From or Sender header of a mail message matches an Internet mail 
   address, if present, in the signer's certificate, if mail addresses 
   are present in the certificate.  A receiving agent SHOULD provide 
   some explicit alternate processing of the message if this comparison 
   fails, which may be to display a message that shows the recipient the 
   addresses in the certificate or other certificate details. 

 
 
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   A receiving agent SHOULD display a subject name or other certificate 
   details when displaying an indication of successful or unsuccessful 
   signature verification. 

   All subject and issuer names MUST be populated (i.e., not an empty 
   SEQUENCE) in S/MIME-compliant X.509 identity certificates, except 
   that the subject DN in a user's (i.e., end-entity) certificate MAY be 
   an empty SEQUENCE in which case the subjectAltName extension will 
   include the subject's identifier and MUST be marked as critical. 

4. Certificate Processing 

   A receiving agent needs to provide some certificate retrieval 
   mechanism in order to gain access to certificates for recipients of 
   digital envelopes.  There are many ways to implement certificate 
   retrieval mechanisms.  X.500 directory service is an excellent 
   example of a certificate retrieval-only mechanism that is compatible 
   with classic X.500 Distinguished Names.  Another method under 
   consideration by the IETF is to provide certificate retrieval 
   services as part of the existing Domain Name System (DNS).  Until 
   such mechanisms are widely used, their utility may be limited by the 
   small number of correspondent's certificates that can be retrieved. 
   At a minimum, for initial S/MIME deployment, a user agent could 
   automatically generate a message to an intended recipient requesting 
   that recipient's certificate in a signed return message. 

   Receiving and sending agents SHOULD also provide a mechanism to allow 
   a user to "store and protect" certificates for correspondents in such 
   a way so as to guarantee their later retrieval.  In many 
   environments, it may be desirable to link the certificate 
   retrieval/storage mechanisms together in some sort of certificate 
   database.  In its simplest form, a certificate database would be 
   local to a particular user and would function in a similar way as an 
   "address book" that stores a user's frequent correspondents.  In this 
   way, the certificate retrieval mechanism would be limited to the 
   certificates that a user has stored (presumably from incoming 
   messages).  A comprehensive certificate retrieval/storage solution 
   may combine two or more mechanisms to allow the greatest flexibility 
   and utility to the user.  For instance, a secure Internet mail agent 
   may resort to checking a centralized certificate retrieval mechanism 
   for a certificate if it can not be found in a user's local 
   certificate storage/retrieval database. 

   Receiving and sending agents SHOULD provide a mechanism for the 
   import and export of certificates, using a CMS certs-only message. 
   This allows for import and export of full certificate chains as 

 
 
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   opposed to just a single certificate.  This is described in [SMIME- 
   MSG]. 

   Agents MUST handle multiple valid Certification Authority (CA) 
   certificates containing the same subject name and the same public 
   keys but with overlapping validity intervals. 

4.1. Certificate Revocation Lists 

   In general, it is always better to get the latest CRL information 
   from a CA than to get information stored away from incoming messages. 
   A receiving agent SHOULD have access to some certificate revocation 
   list (CRL) retrieval mechanism in order to gain access to certificate 
   revocation information when validating certification paths.  A 
   receiving or sending agent SHOULD also provide a mechanism to allow a 
   user to store incoming certificate revocation information for 
   correspondents in such a way so as to guarantee its later retrieval. 

   Receiving and sending agents SHOULD retrieve and utilize CRL 
   information every time a certificate is verified as part of a 
   certification path validation even if the certificate was already 
   verified in the past.  However, in many instances (such as off-line 
   verification) access to the latest CRL information may be difficult 
   or impossible.  The use of CRL information, therefore, may be 
   dictated by the value of the information that is protected.  The 
   value of the CRL information in a particular context is beyond the 
   scope of this specification but may be governed by the policies 
   associated with particular certification paths. 

   All agents MUST be capable of performing revocation checks using CRLs 
   as specified in [KEYM].  All agents MUST perform revocation status 
   checking in accordance with [KEYM].  Receiving agents MUST recognize 
   CRLs in received S/MIME messages. 

4.2. Certificate Path Validation 

   In creating a user agent for secure messaging, certificate, CRL, and 
   certification path validation SHOULD be highly automated while still 
   acting in the best interests of the user.  Certificate, CRL, and path 
   validation MUST be performed as per [KEYM] when validating a 
   correspondent's public key.  This is necessary before using a public 
   key to provide security services such as: verifying a signature; 
   encrypting a content-encryption key (ex: RSA); or forming a pairwise 
   symmetric key (ex: Diffie-Hellman) to be used to encrypt or decrypt a 
   content-encryption key. 


 
 
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   Certificates and CRLs are made available to the path validation 
   procedure in two ways: a) incoming messages, and b) certificate and 
   CRL retrieval mechanisms.  Certificates and CRLs in incoming messages 
   are not required to be in any particular order nor are they required 
   to be in any way related to the sender or recipient of the message 
   (although in most cases they will be related to the sender). Incoming 
   certificates and CRLs SHOULD be cached for use in path validation and 
   optionally stored for later use.  This temporary certificate and CRL 
   cache SHOULD be used to augment any other certificate and CRL 
   retrieval mechanisms for path validation on incoming signed messages. 

4.3. Certificate and CRL Signing Algorithms 

   Certificates and Certificate Revocation Lists (CRLs) are signed by 
   the certificate issuer.  Receiving agents: 

    - MUST support RSA with SHA-256, as specified in [CMS-SHA2] 

    - MUST- support RSA with SHA-1, as specified in [CMSALG] 

    - SHOULD+ support RSA-PSS with SHA-256, as specified in [RSAPSS] 

    - SHOULD- support DSA with SHA-1, as specified in [CMSALG]. 

    - SHOULD- support RSA with MD5, as specified in [CMSALG]. 

   Key sizes from 1024 bits to 2048 bits MUST be supported. 

4.4. PKIX Certificate Extensions 

   PKIX describes an extensible framework in which the basic certificate 
   information can be extended and how such extensions can be used to 
   control the process of issuing and validating certificates.  The PKIX 
   Working Group has ongoing efforts to identify and create extensions 
   which have value in particular certification environments.  Further, 
   there are active efforts underway to issue PKIX certificates for 
   business purposes.  This document identifies the minimum required set 
   of certificate extensions which have the greatest value in the S/MIME 
   environment.  The syntax and semantics of all the identified 
   extensions are defined in [KEYM]. 

   Sending and receiving agents MUST correctly handle the basic 
   constraints, key usage, authority key identifier, subject key 
   identifier, and subject alternative names certificate extensions when 
   they appear in end-entity and CA certificates.  Some mechanism SHOULD 
   exist to gracefully handle other certificate extensions when they 
   appear in end-entity or CA certificates. 
 
 
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   Certificates issued for the S/MIME environment SHOULD NOT contain any 
   critical extensions (extensions that have the critical field set to 
   TRUE) other than those listed here.  These extensions SHOULD be 
   marked as non-critical unless the proper handling of the extension is 
   deemed critical to the correct interpretation of the associated 
   certificate.  Other extensions may be included, but those extensions 
   SHOULD NOT be marked as critical. 

   Interpretation and syntax for all extensions MUST follow [KEYM], 
   unless otherwise specified here. 

4.4.1. Basic Constraints 

   The basic constraints extension serves to delimit the role and 
   position that an issuing authority or end-entity certificate plays in 
   a certification path. 

   For example, certificates issued to CAs and subordinate CAs contain a 
   basic constraint extension that identifies them as issuing authority 
   certificates.  End-entity certificates contain an extension that 
   constrains the certificate from being an issuing authority 
   certificate. 

   Certificates SHOULD contain a basicConstraints extension in CA 
   certificates, and SHOULD NOT contain that extension in end entity 
   certificates. 

4.4.2. Key Usage Certificate Extension 

   The key usage extension serves to limit the technical purposes for 
   which a public key listed in a valid certificate may be used. Issuing 
   authority certificates may contain a key usage extension that 
   restricts the key to signing certificates, certificate revocation 
   lists and other data. 

   For example, a certification authority may create subordinate issuer 
   certificates which contain a key usage extension which specifies that 
   the corresponding public key can be used to sign end user 
   certificates and sign CRLs. 

   If a key usage extension is included in a PKIX certificate, then it 
   MUST be marked as critical. 

   S/MIME receiving agents MUST NOT accept the signature of a message if 
   it was verified using a certificate which contains the key usage 
   extension without either the digitalSignature or nonRepudiation bit 
   set.  Sometimes S/MIME is used as a secure message transport for 
 
 
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   applications beyond interpersonal messaging.  In such cases, the 
   S/MIME-enabled application can specify additional requirements 
   concerning the digitalSignature or nonRepudiation bits within this 
   extension. 

   If the key usage extension is not specified, receiving clients MUST 
   presume that the digitalSignature and nonRepudiation bits are set. 

4.4.3. Subject Alternative Name 

   The subject alternative name extension is used in S/MIME as the 
   preferred means to convey the RFC-2822 email address(es) that 
   correspond(s) to the entity for this certificate.  Any RFC-2822 email 
   addresses present MUST be encoded using the rfc822Name CHOICE of the 
   GeneralName type.  Since the SubjectAltName type is a SEQUENCE OF 
   GeneralName, multiple RFC-2822 email addresses MAY be present. 

4.4.4. Extended Key Usage Extension 

   The extended key usage extension also serves to limit the technical 
   purposes for which a public key listed in a valid certificate may be 
   used.  The set of technical purposes for the certificate therefore 
   are the intersection of the uses indicated in the key usage and 
   extended key usage extensions. 

   For example, if the certificate contains a key usage extension 
   indicating digital signature and an extended key usage extension 
   which includes the email protection OID, then the certificate may be 
   used for signing but not encrypting S/MIME messages.  If the 
   certificate contains a key usage extension indicating digital 
   signature, but no extended key usage extension then the certificate 
   may also be used to sign but not encrypt S/MIME messages. 

   If the extended key usage extension is present in the certificate 
   then interpersonal message S/MIME receiving agents MUST check that it 
   contains either the emailProtection or the anyExtendedKeyUsage OID as 
   defined in [KEYM].  S/MIME uses other than interpersonal messaging 
   MAY require the explicit presence of the extended key usage extension 
   or other OIDs to be present in the extension or both. 

5. IANA Considerations 

   None: All identifiers are already registered.  Please remove this 
   section prior to publication as an RFC. 



 
 
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6. Security Considerations 

   All of the security issues faced by any cryptographic application 
   must be faced by a S/MIME agent.  Among these issues are protecting 
   the user's private key, preventing various attacks, and helping the 
   user avoid mistakes such as inadvertently encrypting a message for 
   the wrong recipient.  The entire list of security considerations is 
   beyond the scope of this document, but some significant concerns are 
   listed here. 

   When processing certificates, there are many situations where the 
   processing might fail.  Because the processing may be done by a user 
   agent, a security gateway, or other program, there is no single way 
   to handle such failures.  Just because the methods to handle the 
   failures has not been listed, however, the reader should not assume 
   that they are not important.  The opposite is true: if a certificate 
   is not provably valid and associated with the message, the processing 
   software should take immediate and noticeable steps to inform the end 
   user about it. 

   Some of the many places where signature and certificate checking 
   might fail include: 

    - no Internet mail addresses in a certificate matches the sender of 
      a message, if the certificate contains at least one mail address 

    - no certificate chain leads to a trusted CA 

    - no ability to check the CRL for a certificate 

    - an invalid CRL was received 

    - the CRL being checked is expired 

    - the certificate is expired 

    - the certificate has been revoked 

   There are certainly other instances where a certificate may be 
   invalid, and it is the responsibility of the processing software to 
   check them all thoroughly, and to decide what to do if the check 
   fails. 

   At the Selected Areas in Cryptography '95 conference in May 1995, 
   Rogier and Chauvaud presented an attack on MD2 that can nearly find 
   collisions [RC95].  Collisions occur when one can find two different 
   messages that generate the same message digest.  A checksum operation 
 
 
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   in MD2 is the only remaining obstacle to the success of the attack. 
   For this reason, the use of MD2 for new applications is discouraged. 
   It is still reasonable to use MD2 to verify existing signatures, as 
   the ability to find collisions in MD2 does not enable an attacker to 
   find new messages having a previously computed hash value. 

   It is possible for there to be multiple unexpired CRLs for a CA.  If 
   an agent is consulting CRLs for certificate validation, it SHOULD 
   make sure that the most recently issued CRL for that CA is consulted, 
   since an S/MIME message sender could deliberately include an older 
   unexpired CRL in an S/MIME message.  This older CRL might not include 
   recent revoked certificates, which might lead an agent to accept a 
   certificate that has been revoked in a subsequent CRL. 

   When determining the time for a certificate validity check, agents 
   have to be careful to use a reliable time.  Unless it is from a 
   trusted agent, this time MUST NOT be the SigningTime attribute found 
   in an S/MIME message.  For most sending agents, the SigningTime 
   attribute could be deliberately set to direct the receiving agent to 
   check a CRL that could have out-of-date revocation status for a 
   certificate, or cause an improper result when checking the Validity 
   field of a certificate. 

























 
 
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Appendix A. References 

A.1. Normative References 

   [ACAUTH]     Farrell, S. and R. Housley, "An Internet Attribute 
                Certificate Profile for Authorization", RFC 3281, April 
                2002. 

   [CMS]        Housely, R., "Cryptographic Message Syntax (CMS)", RFC 
                3852, July 2004. 

                Housley, R., "Cryptographic Message Syntax (CMS) 
                Multiple Signer Clarification", RFC 4852, April 2007. 

   [CMSALG]     Housley, R., "Cryptographic Message Syntax (CMS) 
                Algorithms", RFC 3370, August 2002. 

   [CMS-SHA2]   Turner. S., "Using SHA2 Algorithms with Cryptographic 
                Message Syntax", work in progress. 

   [KEYM]       Cooper, D., Santesson, S., Farrell, S., Boeyen, S. 
                Housley, R., and W. Polk, "Internet X.509 Public Key 
                Infrastructure Certificate and Certificate Revocation 
                List (CRL) Profile", work in progress. 

   [MUSTSHOULD] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate 
                Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997. 

   [PKCS9]      Nystrom, M. and B. Kaliski, "PKCS #9: Selected Object 
                Classes and Attribute Types Version 2.0", RFC 2985, 
                November 2000. 

   [RFC-2822]   Resnick, P., "Internet Message Format", RFC 2822, April 
                2001. 

   [RSAPSS]      Schaad, J., "Use of RSASA-PSS Signature Algorithm in 
                 Cryptographic Message Syntax (CMS)", RFC 4056, June 
                 2005. 

   [SMIME-MSG]  Ramsdell, B., and S. Turner, "S/MIME Version 3.2 
                Message Specification", work in progress. 

   [X.208-88]   ITU-T. Recommendation X.208: Specification of Abstract 
                Syntax Notation One (ASN.1). 1988. 



 
 
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A.2. Informative References 

   [PKCS6]      RSA Laboratories, "PKCS #6: Extended-Certificate Syntax 
                Standard", November 1993. 

   [RC95]       Rogier, N. and Chauvaud, P., "The compression function 
                of MD2 is not collision free," Presented at Selected 
                Areas in Cryptography '95, May 1995. 

   [SECLABEL]   Nicolls, W., "Implementing Company Classification 
                Policy with the S/MIME Security Label", RFC 3114, May 
                2002. 

   [X.500]      ITU-T Recommendation X.500 (1997) | ISO/IEC 9594-
                1:1997, Information technology - Open Systems 
                Interconnection - The Directory:  Overview of concepts, 
                models and services. 

   [X.501]      ITU-T Recommendation X.501 (1997) | ISO/IEC 9594-
                2:1997, Information technology - Open Systems 
                Interconnection - The Directory:  Models. 

   [X.509]      ITU-T Recommendation X.509 (1997) | ISO/IEC 9594-
                8:1997, Information technology - Open Systems 
                Interconnection - The Directory:  Authentication 
                framework. 

   [X.520]      ITU-T Recommendation X.520 (1997) | ISO/IEC 9594-
                6:1997, Information technology - Open Systems 
                Interconnection - The Directory:  Selected attribute 
                types. 
















 
 
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Appendix B. Acknowledgements 

   Many thanks go out to the other authors of the S/MIME v2 RFC: Steve 
   Dusse, Paul Hoffman and Jeff Weinstein.  Without v2, there wouldn't 
   be a v3. 

   A number of the members of the S/MIME Working Group have also worked 
   very hard and contributed to v3 of this document.  Any list of people 
   is doomed to omission and for that I apologize.  In alphabetical 
   order, the following people stand out in my mind due to the fact that 
   they made direct contributions to this document. 

   Bill Flanigan, Trevor Freeman, Elliott Ginsburg, Paul Hoffman, Russ 
   Housley, David P. Kemp, Michael Myers, John Pawling, Denis Pinkas, 
   Jim Schaad. 

Author's Addresses 

   Blake Ramsdell 
   SendMail 

   Email: ramsdell@sendmail.com 

   Sean Turner 

   IECA, Inc. 
   3057 Nutley Street, Suite 106 
   Fairfax, VA 22031 
   USA 

   Email: turners@ieca.com 
















 
 
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