Re: carrying certificates

warwick (wford@bnr.ca)
Fri, 8 Mar 1996 19:48:00 -0500

In message " carrying certificates", stefan.monnier@lia.di.epfl.ch writes:

>> I think it would be better if there were a location to optionally carry a 
>> certificate.  I can see that bandwidth is reduced if you know that the 
>> recipient can easily obtain the certificate from a directory or cache.  
>> However, there are many environments where directory access is unavailable.
>
>MOSS has been through this already: there is an optional; location for
>certificates. You simply have to bundle up the secure part (signed or 
encrypted
>with the certificate, which can trivially be done with a multipart/mixed.

OK, but unless this convention is a recognized part of the standard, it is of 
little help to implementors.  Unfortunately, this omission in the MOSS 
specification is a serious deficiency, in comparison with PEM, S/MIME, MSP, 
SPKM, X.400, and virtually every other protocol that incorporates digital 
signatures.

Warwick
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    Warwick Ford, Nortel Secure Networks        E-mail: wford@bnr.ca
    PO Box 3511, Station C                      Tel:  (613) 765-4924    
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