RFC 2632 (rfc2632) - Page 1 of 13

S/MIME Version 3 Certificate Handling

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Network Working Group                               B. Ramsdell, Editor
Request for Comments: 2632                                    Worldtalk
Category: Standards Track                                     June 1999


                 S/MIME Version 3 Certificate Handling

Status of this Memo

   This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
   Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
   improvements.  Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
   Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
   and status of this protocol.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999).  All Rights Reserved.

1. Overview

   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 certify 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 memo, the following definitions apply.

   ASN.1: Abstract Syntax Notation One, as defined in ITU-T X.680-689.

   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 [X.509]



Ramsdell                    Standards Track
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