RFC 2632 (rfc2632) - Page 2 of 13
S/MIME Version 3 Certificate Handling
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
RFC 2632 S/MIME Version 3 Certificate Handling June 1999
BER: Basic Encoding Rules for ASN.1, as defined in ITU-T X.690.
Certificate: A type that binds an entity's distinguished name to a
public key with a digital signature. This type is defined in the
Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure (PKIX) Certificate and CRL
Profile [KEYM]. This type also contains the distinguished name of the
certificate issuer (the signer), an issuer-specific serial number,
the issuer's signature algorithm identifier, a validity period, and
extensions also defined in that document.
Certificate Revocation List (CRL): A type that contains information
about certificates whose validity an issuer has prematurely revoked.
The information consists of an issuer name, the time of issue, the
next scheduled time of issue, a list of certificate serial numbers
and their associated revocation times, and extensions as defined in
[KEYM]. The CRL is signed by the issuer. The type intended by this
specification is the one defined in [KEYM].
DER: Distinguished Encoding Rules for ASN.1, as defined in ITU-T
X.690.
Receiving agent: software that interprets and processes S/MIME CMS
objects, MIME body parts that contain CMS objects, or both.
Sending agent: software that creates S/MIME CMS objects, MIME body
parts that contain CMS objects, or both.
S/MIME agent: user software that is a receiving agent, a sending
agent, or both.
1.2 Compatibility with Prior Practice of S/MIME
S/MIME version 3 agents should attempt to have the greatest
interoperability possible with S/MIME version 2 agents. S/MIME
version 2 is described in RFC 2311 through RFC 2315, inclusive. RFC
2311 also has historical information about the development of S/MIME.
1.3 Terminology
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in [MUSTSHOULD].
Ramsdell Standards Track