RFC 3379 (rfc3379) - Page 2 of 15


Delegated Path Validation and Delegated Path Discovery Protocol Requirements



Alternative Format: Original Text Document



RFC 3379           DPV and DPD Protocol Requirements      September 2002


   A third request/response pair allows clients to obtain references for
   the policies supported by a DPV or DPD server.

1.1. Terminology

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document (in uppercase, as shown) are to be interpreted as described
   in [RFC 2119].

2. Rationale and Benefits for DPV (Delegated Path Validation)

   DPV allows a server to perform a real time certificate validation for
   a validation time T, where T may be the current time or a time in the
   recent past.

   In order to validate a certificate, a chain of multiple certificates,
   called a certification path, may be needed, comprising a certificate
   of the public key owner (the end entity) signed by one CA, and zero
   or more additional certificates of CAs signed by other CAs.

   Offloading path validation to a server may be required by a client
   that lacks the processing, and/or communication capabilities to fetch
   the necessary certificates and revocation information, perform
   certification path construction, and perform local path validation.

   In constrained execution environments, such as telephones and PDAs,
   memory and processing limitations may preclude local implementation
   of complete, PKIX-compliant certification path validation [PKIX-1].

   In applications where minimum latency is critical, delegating
   validation to a trusted server can offer significant advantages. The
   time required to send the target certificate to the validation
   server, receive the response, and authenticate the response, can be
   considerably less than the time required for the client to perform
   certification path discovery and validation.  Even if a certification
   path were readily available to the client, the processing time
   associated with signature verification for each certificate in the
   path might (especially when validating very long paths or using a
   limited processor) be greater than the delay associated with use of a
   validation server.










Pinkas & Housley             Informational