RFC 2312 (rfc2312) - Page 1 of 20

S/MIME Version 2 Certificate Handling

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Network Working Group                                           S. Dusse
Request for Comments: 2312                             RSA Data Security
Category: Informational                                       P. Hoffman
                                                Internet Mail Consortium
                                                             B. Ramsdell
                                                               Worldtalk
                                                            J. Weinstein
                                                                Netscape
                                                              March 1998


                 S/MIME Version 2 Certificate Handling

Status of this Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
   not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of this
   memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1998).  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. In order to validate the keys of a message sent to it, an
   S/MIME agent needs to certify that the key is valid. This memo
   describes the mechanisms S/MIME uses to create and validate keys
   using certificates.

   This specification is compatible with PKCS #7 in that it uses the
   data types defined by PKCS #7. It also inherits all the varieties of
   architectures for certificate-based key management supported by PKCS
   #7.  Note that the method S/MIME messages make certificate requests
   is defined in [SMIME-MSG].

   In order to handle S/MIME certificates, an agent has to follow
   specifications in this memo, as well as some of the specifications
   listed in the following documents:

    - "PKCS #1: RSA Encryption", [PKCS-1].
    - "PKCS #7: Cryptographic Message Syntax", [PKCS-7]
    - "PKCS #10: Certification Request Syntax", [PKCS-10].






Dusse, et. al.               Informational
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