RFC 2792 (rfc2792) - Page 3 of 7
DSA and RSA Key and Signature Encoding for the KeyNote Trust Management System
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
RFC 2792 Key and Signature Encoding for KeyNote March 2000
2.3 Binary Identifier Normalized Form
The normalized form of a Binary Identifier is the binary identifier's
data. Thus, Binary Identifier comparisons are essentially binary-
string comparisons of the Identifier values.
3. Key Encoding
3.1 DSA Key Encoding
DSA keys in KeyNote are encoded as an ASN1 SEQUENCE of four ASN1
INTEGER objects. The four INTEGER objects are the public value and
the p, q, and g parameters of the DSA key, in that order.
For use in KeyNote credentials, the ASN1 SEQUENCE is then ASCII-
encoded (e.g., as a string of hex digits or base64 characters).
DSA keys encoded in this way in KeyNote must be identified by the
"dsa-XXX:" algorithm name, where XXX is an ASCII encoding ("hex" or
"base64"). Other ASCII encoding schemes may be defined in the
future.
3.2 RSA Key Encoding
RSA keys in KeyNote are encoded as an ASN1 SEQUENCE of two ASN1
INTEGER objects. The two INTEGER objects are the public exponent and
the modulus of the DSA key, in that order.
For use in KeyNote credentials, the ASN1 SEQUENCE is then ASCII-
encoded (e.g., as a string of hex digits or base64 characters).
RSA keys encoded in this way in KeyNote must be identified by the
"rsa-XXX:" algorithm name, where XXX is an ASCII encoding ("hex" or
"base64"). Other ASCII encoding schemes may be defined in the
future.
3.3 Binary Identifier Encoding
Binary Identifiers in KeyNote are assumed to have no internal
encoding, and are treated as a sequence of binary digits. The Binary
Identifiers are ASCII-encoded, similarly to RSA or DSA keys.
Binary Identifiers encoded in this way in KeyNote must be identified
by the "binary-XXX:" algorithm name, where XXX is an ASCII encoding
("hex" or "base64"). Other ASCII encoding schemes may be defined in
the future.
Blaze, et al. Informational