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RE: certification for pki




I apologize to the pkix list if the following is getting to be too off-topic,
and would be happy to take it off list if anyone wishes.

Francois,

I agree generally with your critique of NIST's draft CIMC PP, in the sense that
its authors probably made over-liberal use of creating new security functional
requirements that are not in the CC, rather than using the SFRs available.  They
probably could have done a much better job of using the existing SFRs with
creative use of legitimate operations (selection, assignment, iteration, and
refinement).

However, I disagree with the statement that "all these additional requirements
would probably not be recognized through the mutual recognition."  The MRA
http://niap.nist.gov/cc-scheme/DownloadCCMRA.html  does not recognize
"requirements;" it does recognize CC evaluation certificates for PPs and IT
products evaluated under the member national schemes.

A proper use of custom or "explicit" SFRs and/or security assurance requirements
(SARs) is most definitely provided for in the CC.  For example, in CC part 1
paragraph 5.2 we have:

"The CC recognizes the possibility that functional and assurance requirements
not
included in the provided catalogues may be required in order to represent the
complete set of IT security requirements. The following shall apply to the
inclusion
of these extended functional or assurance requirements: ..."

The exact CC requirements for SFR/SAR extension in a PP are further elaborated
in the Annex B Specification of Protection Profiles.

If done properly and justified in the PP/ST rationale, the use of
explicit/extended SFRs in no way invalidates a PP or product evaluation.  The
PP/ST author does have the burden of justifying the use of any explicit
(extended) requirements (which IMO the CIMC PP authors have failed to do in the
current draft).  Once a PP (even with explicit SFRs) has been successfully
evaluated under one of the national schemes it's evaluation will be mutually
recognized.  Once a product with an ST claiming compliance to such a PP has been
successfully evaluated under one of the national schemes it's evaluation will be
mutually recognized.
-GH




FRousseau@chrysalis-its.com on 06/21/2000 12:09:18 PM

To:   Gene Hilborn/DEF/CSC@CSC
cc:   jean.med@arabtrust.com, ietf-pkix@imc.org
Subject:  RE: certification for pki



Gene,

However, the major drawback with the Certificate Issuing and Management
Component (CIMC) Protection Profile (PP) sponsored/created by the (US)
National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) is that the current
version still specifies about 25 new security functional requirements (SFRs)
that are NOT included in the Common Criteria (CC)/ISO 15408 instead of using
the refinement and/or the iteration operations on existing CC security
functional requirements.

In addition, all these additional security functional requirements from the
NIST CIMC PP would probably not be recognised through the mutual recognition
arrangement (MRA).

Francois
___________________________________
Francois Rousseau
Director of Standards and Conformance
Chrysalis-ITS
1688 Woodward Drive
Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA, K2C 3R7
frousseau@chrysalis-its.com      Tel. (613) 723-5076 ext. 419
http://www.chrysalis-its.com     Fax. (613) 723-5078


-----Original Message-----
From: ghilborn@csc.com [mailto:ghilborn@csc.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 21, 2000 10:23 AM
To: ietf-pkix@imc.org
Cc: jean.med@arabtrust.com
Subject: Re: certification for pki

One internationally recognized avenue is an evaluation under the Common
Criteria/ISO 15408.  Such an evaluation up to EAL4 is automatically
recognized
by the (currently) nine mutual recognition arrangement countries.  Two
current
problems are (1) that the CC itself does not contain a crypto module
evaluation
standard such as FIPS 140-1/2, and (2) there is not yet a consensus and
evaluated Protection Profile for PKI components.   Some product vendors have
undertanen evaluations without PPs.  FIPS 140-1 is officially US/Canada, but
also widely recognized.

There is a maturing draft PP sponsored/created by the (US) National
Institute of
Science and Technology,  which offers a selection of four levels of
assurance
for certificate issuing and management components (CIMC).  See
http://csrc.nist.gov/pki/documents/.  For specific crypto module validation,
it
references FIPS 140-1, but also includes all the other system security
funcional
and assurance requirements appropriate to CIMC.

-Gene Hilborn


jean.med@arabtrust.com on 06/21/2000 06:00:06 AM

To:   ietf-pkix@imc.org
cc:    (bcc: Gene Hilborn/DEF/CSC)
Subject:  certification for pki

Hi,

Is there any internationally accredited certification for PKI

Jean

Title: RE: certification for pki

Gene,

However, the major drawback with the Certificate Issuing and Management Component (CIMC) Protection Profile (PP) sponsored/created by the (US) National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) is that the current version still specifies about 25 new security functional requirements (SFRs) that are NOT included in the Common Criteria (CC)/ISO 15408 instead of using the refinement and/or the iteration operations on existing CC security functional requirements.

In addition, all these additional security functional requirements from the NIST CIMC PP would probably not be recognised through the mutual recognition arrangement (MRA).

Francois
___________________________________
Francois Rousseau
Director of Standards and Conformance
Chrysalis-ITS
1688 Woodward Drive
Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA, K2C 3R7
frousseau@chrysalis-its.com      Tel. (613) 723-5076 ext. 419
http://www.chrysalis-its.com     Fax. (613) 723-5078


-----Original Message-----
From: ghilborn@csc.com [mailto:ghilborn@csc.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 21, 2000 10:23 AM
To: ietf-pkix@imc.org
Cc: jean.med@arabtrust.com
Subject: Re: certification for pki

One internationally recognized avenue is an evaluation under the Common
Criteria/ISO 15408.  Such an evaluation up to EAL4 is automatically recognized
by the (currently) nine mutual recognition arrangement countries.  Two current
problems are (1) that the CC itself does not contain a crypto module evaluation
standard such as FIPS 140-1/2, and (2) there is not yet a consensus and
evaluated Protection Profile for PKI components.   Some product vendors have
undertanen evaluations without PPs.  FIPS 140-1 is officially US/Canada, but
also widely recognized.

There is a maturing draft PP sponsored/created by the (US) National Institute of
Science and Technology,  which offers a selection of four levels of assurance
for certificate issuing and management components (CIMC).  See
http://csrc.nist.gov/pki/documents/.  For specific crypto module validation, it
references FIPS 140-1, but also includes all the other system security funcional
and assurance requirements appropriate to CIMC.

-Gene Hilborn


jean.med@arabtrust.com on 06/21/2000 06:00:06 AM

To:   ietf-pkix@imc.org
cc:    (bcc: Gene Hilborn/DEF/CSC)
Subject:  certification for pki

Hi,

Is there any internationally accredited certification for PKI

Jean