RFC 1847 (rfc1847) - Page 1 of 11
Security Multiparts for MIME: Multipart/Signed and Multipart/Encrypted
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Network Working Group J. Galvin
Request For Comments: 1847 S. Murphy
Category: Standards Track Trusted Information Systems
S. Crocker
CyberCash, Inc.
N. Freed
Innosoft International, Inc.
October 1995
Security Multiparts for MIME:
Multipart/Signed and Multipart/Encrypted
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.
Abstract
This document defines a framework within which security services may
be applied to MIME body parts. MIME, an acronym for "Multipurpose
Internet Mail Extensions", defines the format of the contents of
Internet mail messages and provides for multi-part textual and non-
textual message bodies. The new content types are subtypes of
multipart: signed and encrypted. Each will contain two body parts:
one for the protected data and one for the control information
necessary to remove the protection. The type and contents of the
control information body parts are determined by the value of the
protocol parameter of the enclosing multipart/signed or
multipart/encrypted content type, which is required to be present.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction .............................................. 2
2. Definition of Security Subtypes of Multipart .............. 2
2.1 Definition of Multipart/Signed .......................... 3
2.2 Definition of Multipart/Encrypted ....................... 6
3. Definition of Control Information Content Types ........... 9
4. Definition of Key Management Content Types ................ 9
5. Security Considerations ................................... 10
6. Acknowledgements .......................................... 10
7. References ................................................ 10
8. Authors' Addresses ........................................ 11
Galvin, et al Standards Track