RFC 2312 (rfc2312) - Page 1 of 20
S/MIME Version 2 Certificate Handling
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
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