Re: DER in ac509prof-03

[pgut001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Peter Gutmann)]

Paul Koning <pkoning@xedia.com> writes:

>Also, while old RFCs are still available, 12 year old ITU specs may only 
>exist in antique shops by now.   

It's the same for ASN.1 books, Prof.Larmouth's book is for current versions of
ASN.1 rather than the obsolete versions referenced in RFC's, so it would 
probably do more to confuse than help.  The only reference for the obsolete
variant of ASN.1 is Douglas Steedmans "Tutorial and Reference", which is 
useful for that version but doesn't apply to any current version.  This book
has been out of print for years, so you'd actually have to go to antique
shops (well, used book stores) to find it.

>Clearly, it is not acceptable to have an RFC that points to an outside 
>standard unless that outside standard is available.

It could be argued that the ASN.1 specs, being ISO standards, aren't usefully 
"available" no matter whether it's an obsolete or current version which is 
being referenced :-).

Peter.