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RE: I-D Action:draft-ietf-pkix-ocspagility-01.txt



Stefan,

Thanks.  I will  review version 2 and make comments including
suggestions for the two comments mentioned below by you. 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Stefan Santesson [mailto:stefan@xxxxxxxxxxx] 
> Sent: Wednesday, August 12, 2009 9:06 AM
> To: Santosh Chokhani; ietf-pkix
> Subject: Re: I-D Action:draft-ietf-pkix-ocspagility-01.txt
> 
> Santosh,
> 
> Thank you for your extensive review.
> 
> Instead of arguing all details in a mail, I have updated the 
> draft, following most of your recommendations.
> 
> The new draft is available here:
> http://www.ietf.org/id/draft-ietf-pkix-ocspagility-02.txt
> 
> I have done nothing about comment 6 and 7.
> Do you have any proposal on what specific changes you would 
> like to make?
> 
> Let me know if this draft resolves your comments?
> 
> /Stefan
> 
> 
> On 09-08-10 6:04 PM, "Santosh Chokhani" 
> <SChokhani@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> > 
> > I had sent the following comments and Recommendations for 
> the I-D to 
> > Stefan last week.  This may of interest to others.
> > 
> > COMMENT 1
> > Section 2, Paragraph 1 states: "A particular OCSP server
> >    may or may not be provided by the CA that issued the certificate
> >    whose status is being queried and may or may provide a realtime
> >    indication of the certificate status or a time delayed status
> >    indication.".
> > 
> > The above should be changed to: "An OCSP Responder may or 
> may not be 
> > issued an OCSP Responder certificate by the CA that issued the 
> > certificate whose status is being queried.  An OCSP Responder may 
> > provide pre-signed OCSP responses, OCSP responses freshly signed in 
> > response to an OCSP request, or a combination of the two."
> > 
> > COMMENT 2
> > Section 2, Paragraph 4 states: "While the responder may apply 
> > heuristics such as using the signature
> >    algorithm employed by the certificate issuer, such 
> heuristics fail in
> >    many common real-world situations where multiple 
> signature algorithms
> >    are employed:"
> > 
> > The whole premise of using certificate signing algorithm 
> seems to be 
> > false.  It should be based on CRL signing.  Second 2 starting with 
> > paragraph 4 and including first set of bullets and short paragraph 
> > following the bullets should be revised as follows:
> > 
> > "While an OCSP Responder may apply rules such as using the 
> signature 
> > algorithm employed by the CA for CRL signing, the rule may 
> not work in 
> > the following circumstances:
> > 
> > o Algorithm used to sign the CRL may not be consistent with 
> key pair 
> > being used by the OCSP Responder to sign responses."
> > 
> > I do not see how the remaining three bullets will be applicable.
> > 
> > COMMENT 3
> > The following should be deleted from Section 2: "The last 
> criterion is 
> > significant as it occurs frequently in real world PKI 
> deployments and 
> > cannot be resolved through the information
> >    available from in-band signalling using the RFC 2560 [RFC2560]
> >    protocol without modification"
> > 
> > COMMENT 4
> > Section 2 states "In addition, a system that employs a signature 
> > algorithm other than
> >    the de-facto default is frequently doing so to achieve 
> very specific
> >    security properties that may not be captured by a heuristic
> >    assumptuion designed to facilitate interoperability rather than
> >    performance.  In particular:
> > 
> >    o  An implementation may intentionally employ an algorithm for
> >       certificate status response that is less 
> computationally demanding
> >       than for signing the certificate itself, thus 
> allowing for more
> >       frequent certificate status validation.
> > 
> >    o  An implementation may intentionally wish to guard against the
> >       possibility of a compromise resulting from a 
> signature algorithm
> >       compromise by employing two separate encryption algorithms."
> > 
> > This should be changed as follows: "An OCSP Responder may wish to 
> > employ different signature algorithm that the CRL signing algorithm 
> > for the following reasons:
> > 
> >    o  In order to generate pre-signed response more 
> frequently or to 
> > meet the demand, the OCSP Responder may wish to employ a signing 
> > algorithm that is computationally less demanding for signature 
> > generation that the CRL signing algorithm
> >       
> >    o  A PKI may wish to guard against the possibility of a 
> compromise 
> > resulting from a signature algorithm compromise by employing two 
> > separate signature algorithms for CRL and OCSP signing, 
> thus allowing 
> > the relying parties to employ one mechanism or other for 
> certificate 
> > status validation."
> > 
> > COMMENT 5
> > Section 3 states: "A client MAY declare a preferred set of 
> algorithms 
> > algorithms in a
> >    request using the preferred signature algorithm extension."
> > 
> > Change it as follows: "A client MAY declare a preferred set of 
> > algorithms in a request using the preferred signature algorithms 
> > extension."
> > 
> > COMMENT 6
> > Section 3, Should there be an indication these should be Algorithm 
> > Identifiers asserted in SIGNED MACRO and Signature field as 
> opposed to 
> > those asserted in subject public key information?
> > 
> > COMMENT 7
> > Section 3, Should it discuss what the impact is of the curves to be 
> > used?  Clients may not employ the curves in use by the server.
> > 
> > COMMENT 8
> > Section states: "If a set of preferred signature algorithms is 
> > declared the client
> >    MUST support each of the specified algorithms"
> > 
> > This should be changed to "If a set of preferred signature 
> algorithms 
> > is specified by the client in the OCSP request, the client MUST 
> > support each of the specified algorithms."
> > 
> > COMMENT 9
> > Section 4.1 and 4.2 need to stress that the OCSP Responder 
> SHALL use 
> > signing algorithm whose cryptographic bit security is acceptable to 
> > the OCSP Responder.
> > 
> > COMMENT 10
> > Section 4.1, 2nd choice should be CRL signing algorithm.  
> Thus, switch 
> > number 2 and 3.
> > 
> > COMMENT 11
> > Section 7.2 should be revised as follows:
> > 
> >    "The mechanism to support client indication of preferred 
> signature
> >    algorithms is not protected against a man in the middle downgrade
> >    attack.  This constraint is not considered to be a significant
> >    security concern since the OCSP Responder MUST NOT sign OCSP 
> > Responses using weak algorithms even if requested by the 
> client.  In 
> > addition, the client can reject OCSP responses that do not meet its 
> > own criteria for acceptable cryptographic security no matter what 
> > mechanism is used to determine the signing algorithm of the 
> response.  
> > This can be achieved using the DSSC I-D."
> > 
> > COMMENT 12
> > The document needs additional editing.
> > 
> > Santosh Chokhani
> > CygnaCom Solutions
> > 
> > "Questioning conventional wisdom is key to innovation"
> > 
> 
> 
>