As per Relevance of the word organization, we have this rfc below:
Network Working Group N.
Request for Comments: 1875 Norwegian Computing
Category: Informational December 1995
UNINETT PCA Policy
Status of this
This memo provides information for the Internet community. This
does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution
this memo is unlimited
Table of
1. Introduction.......................................2
2. PCA Identity.......................................2
3. UNINETT - a brief overview.........................2
4. PCA Scope..........................................2
4.1 The certification tree.............................3
4.2 Use of Registration Authorities (RAs)..............3
5. PCA Security & Privacy.............................3
5.1 Security requirements imposed on the PCA...........3
5.2 Security requirements imposed on CAs...............4
5.3 Security requirements imposed on RAs...............4
5.4 Measures taken to protect the privacy of
information collected in the course of
CAs and (for CAs) users............................4
6. Certification Policy...............................5
6.1 Policy and procedures when certifying CAs..........5
6.2 Policy and procedures when certifying RAs..........5
6.3 Policy and procedures when certifying users........5
6.4 Validity interval for issued certificates..........6
6.5 The CAs right to a DN and procedures to resolve
conflicts..........................................6
6.6 The users right to a DN and procedures to
DN conflicts.......................................6
7. Certificate Management.............................7
8. CRL Management.....................................7
9. Naming Conventions.................................8
10. Business Issues....................................9
10.1 Legal agreement concerning CAs.....................9
10.2 Legal agreement concerning RAs.....................9
10.3 Fees...............................................9
11. Other..............................................9
11.1 Distribution of software needed by CAs, RAs
users..............................................9
12. Security Considerations............................9
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RFC 1875 UNINETT PCA Policy Statements December 1995
13. References........................................10
14. Author's Address..................................10
1.
This document provides information about policy statements
by the UNINETT Policy Certification Authority (UNINETT PCA).
It's purpose is to provide information to members of the
community who wish to evaluate the trust they can place in
certification path that includes a certificate issued by the
PCA, or to set up a CA to be certified by the UNINETT PCA
2. PCA
Distinguished Name (DN): C=no, O=uninett, OU=
The UNINETT PCA will be run by
Norwegian Computing
Gaustadallien 23
P.O.Box 114 Blindern
N-0314 Oslo,
Contact person
Nils Harald
Email: Nils.Harald.Berge@nr.
Tel.: (+47) 22 85 25 00
Fax : (+47) 22 69 76 60
Duration: This policy is valid from Oct 1, 1995 to Jan 1, 1998
Info about this PCA is available at: http://www.uninett.no/pca
3. UNINETT - a brief
UNINETT is a Limited Company (AS) operating the Norwegian network
academics and research. It is incorporated under Norwegian law,
it's company number is 968100211.
More information is available from the UNINETT web server at
http://www.uninett.no
4. PCA
The scope of the UNINETT PCA is determined by UNINETT Policy. It
chiefly certify CAs to run on behalf of legal entities such
schools and companies
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RFC 1875 UNINETT PCA Policy Statements December 1995
4.1 The certification
The certification tree beneath the UNINETT PCA comprise
distinct entities: Certification Authorities (CAs),
Authorities (RAs) and users. CAs are described in the PEM
[1,2,3,4]. An explanation of RAs is given bellow
There will be one CA, with possible sublevel CAs, per UNINETT
organization. The CA may be run by the organization itself, or by
organization running the PCA for organizations who do not want
take on the responsibility themselves
4.2 Use of Registration Authorities (RAs
Since the CA may be located far away from the users,
authorities are needed for physical identification/authentication
users. For security reasons, and to avoid an unnecessary large
of CAs, these authorities are not allowed to issue certificates
A registration authority (RA) is an ordinary user, appointed by
organization or an organizational unit and trusted by a CA,
as a point of contact for persons who want to register as users, i.e
to have a certificate issued. In order to avoid faked requests
certification, users must send their self-signed certificate to
appropriate RA, and then physically visit the RA with proof
identity. The RA will forward the self-signed certificate to the
in a message signed by the RA, if the user is properly authenticated
For bulk certification (see 5.3) the RA must physically verify
identity of the user before giving out the password for access to
users private key
A CA may appoint as many RAs as it wish. The only difference
certifying an RA and an ordinary user is that the RA (a person)
sign an agreement with the certifying CA, stating the obligation
adhere to the agreed procedures
5. PCA Security &
5.1 Security requirements imposed on the
- The PCA will have its private key stored on a smartcard
- The PCA will be run on a dedicated workstation with no
connection. The workstation will be physically secured
- Exchanging data between the PCA workstation and the rest of
world will be done by using tapes or floppy discs
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RFC 1875 UNINETT PCA Policy Statements December 1995
- The PCA RSA key pair will have a length of 1024 bits
- Backups from the PCA workstation must be stored in at least one
site location. Backups must be physically
5.2 Security requirements imposed on CAs that are to be
- A CA must be run on a dedicated workstation with no
connection. The workstation must be physically secured
- Exchanging data between the CA workstation and the rest of the
must be done by using tapes or floppy discs
- The CA RSA key pair must have a minimum length of 1024 bits
A security requirements document concerning CAs will be
available online, and expected to be obeyed
5.3 Security requirements imposed on RAs that are to be
- RAs must use a work station, with remote login disabled. Use
X-terminal, terminal emulator etc. with processes running on
remote machine is strictly prohibited
- The RA RSA key pair must have a minimum length of 512 bits
A security requirements document concerning RAs will be
available online, and expected to be obeyed
5.4 Measures taken to protect the privacy of any information
in the course of certifying CAs and (for CAs) users
CAs will not collect any security relevant information about users
In those cases when CAs generate keys (and certificates) on behalf
users, all information pertaining the users private key will
securely deleted after it has been received by the user. CAs
always generate their own key pairs, thus no security
information will be collected by the PCA
All archived material concerning DNs for users will be stored on
CA workstations, which are physically protected and does not have
network connections
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RFC 1875 UNINETT PCA Policy Statements December 1995
6. Certification
6.1 Policy and procedures when certifying
In order to be certified, a CA must sign an agreement with
UNINETT PCA stating the obligation to adhere to the
procedures
The persons responsible for running the CA will be evaluated by
UNINETT PCA, in order to determine whether they exhibit the
qualifications and have access to the resources needed in order
run the CA securely
The CA must submit its self signed certificate to the UNINETT PCA
6.2 Policy and procedures when certifying
The organization or organizational unit is responsible for
RA persons, typically 1-3 persons per organization/unit. The
representing the RA must sign an agreement with the certifying CA
stating the obligation to adhere to the agreed procedures in order
be certified
The person representing the RA will be evaluated by the
CA, in order to determine whether he/she exhibits the
qualifications and has access to the resources needed to run the
securely
The RA must submit its self signed certificate to the certifying CA
In the absence of RAs, or equivalent, the validity of
certification request (i.e. the identity of the requestor) must
verified by "out of band" means. These means will vary from case
case, depending on physical distance, prior knowledge etc
6.3 Policy and procedures when certifying
There are two ways in which a user can be certified
- individual certification,
- bulk
When applying individual certification, a user will generate his
key pair, and his own self-signed certificate. The
procedure follows the PEM documents [1,2,3,4], with the
that the certification request will be sent to an RA. The user
then visit the RA with proof of
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Bulk certification of users will typically be done when it
desirable to certify many users belonging to the same organization
An example could be the certification of students at the beginning
a semester, or initial certification of all employees belonging to
company. When bulk certifying users, the CA will generate the users
key pairs and certificates. A user's key pair together with
certificate will be DES-encrypted and sent electronically to
user. The pass phrase to generate the DES-key can be collected
the local RA, given proof of identity. The pass phrase can also
sent by certified surface mail
When bulk certifying users the CA or RA shall not access or store
of the users' private information
A person's identity is verified by
- driver's
-
- bank card (Norwegian
CA and RA need not be separate entities. A CA may verify the
of users directly, following the procedures described above
6.4 Validity interval for issued
Validity interval for user and RA certificates is maximum 2
from date of issue
There is in principle no special requirements regarding
intervals for CA certificates, though it is recommended not to
certificates for more than a 10 year period
6.5 The CAs right to a DN and procedures to resolve DN
CAs will preferably use DNs reflecting the organizational scope
which they certify users (see also "Naming conventions").
certifying entity must ensure, with the aid of X.500
disambiguation tool, the uniqueness of a DN
6.6 The user's right to a DN and procedures to resolve DN
It is the certifying CA who will determine a user's DN and ensure
with the aid of X.500 as disambiguation tool, the uniqueness of a DN
Users will preferably use DNs reflecting the organization to
they belong, and their full name (see also "Naming conventions").
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RFC 1875 UNINETT PCA Policy Statements December 1995
7. Certificate
UNINETTs X.500 service will be used when storing
belonging to users within UNINETT member organizations. Other
may also use the X.500 service if available. All certificates
will be maintained in a local database by the certifying entity
addition to the X.500 directory. If a CA does not have access to
X.500 service, all issued certificates must be mailed to the
PCA who will make the X.500 entries on behalf of the CA
Certificates can be requested in two ways, either directly from
X.500 directory, or by querying a mail-responder service
by the UNINETT PCA
Details on how certificates are mailed, and how to use the mail
responder service can be found at the following WWW site
http://www.uninett.no/pca
8. CRL
Certificate Revocation Lists (CRLs) must be issued at least once
month, on a specified date, by CAs. The UNINETT X.500 service will
used to publish CRLs. If a CA does not have access to the X.500
service the CRL must be mailed to the UNINETT PCA who will make
X.500 entries on behalf of the CA
CRLs can be requested in two ways, either directly from the X.500
directory, or by querying a mail-responder service maintained by
UNINETT PCA
Details on how CRLs are mailed, and how to use the mail-
service can be found at the following WWW site
http://www.uninett.no/pca
The UNINETT PCA will continually update the CRL with revoked
certificates
There is no automatic distribution service of CRLs. Therefore
will have to pull CRLs from the X.500 or the mail-responder.
lists are currently not supported. Appropriate news groups
information services will be used to announce the issuance of
CRLs
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RFC 1875 UNINETT PCA Policy Statements December 1995
9. Naming
Naming conventions for CAs
CAs' DNs will follow the conventions adopted by their organization
Organizations who do not have any preferences in this matter
use the following scheme
C=, O=<organization> [, OU=]
Country is the country code, e.g. all Norwegian organizations
C=no. Organization is the organization represented by the CA (e.g
the scope for which the CA certify users). Organizational-unit
optional, reflecting a unit within a large organization for cases
which the organization has more than one CA. Example: the
responsible for certifying UNINETT employees will be assigned
following DN: C=no, O=
Naming conventions for users
Users' DNs will follow the conventions adopted by their organization
Organizations who do not have any preferences in this matter
use the following scheme
C=, O=<organization>, [OU=,]
CN=<personal name
Personal name will be a unique name for the user with respect to
organization to which the user belongs. An organization's CA
responsible for ensuring that all certified users have a
personal name. Usually personal name will be the user's full name
Use of OU is optional. Example if Per Olsen is an employee of
he will be assigned the following DN: C=no, O=uninett, CN=Per Olsen
The choice of which users to certify as belonging to the
is made by the CA, not by the PCA
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RFC 1875 UNINETT PCA Policy Statements December 1995
10. Business
10.1 Legal agreements concerning
If a CA wishes to be certified by the UNINETT PCA, the CA will
to sign a legal agreement with the UNINETT PCA. The legal
can be obtained by contacting the UNINETT PCA
10.2 Legal agreements concerning
If an RA wishes to be certified by a CA, a person representing the
will have to sign a legal agreement with the CA. The legal
can be obtained from the appropriate CA, or directly from the
PCA. Each CA will locally decide whether the RA is to be certified
10.3
The UNINETT PCA reserves the right to charge fees. The fee
will be determined by UNINETT policy
11.
11.1 Distribution of software needed by CAs, RAs and
The software needed is based on the SecuDE-package from
Darmstadt, and is available without fee for non-commercial purposes
All software distributions should include a signature from
UNINETT PCA to verify its integrity. Users, CAs, and RAs are
to verify such signatures immediately after installation
12. Security
Security issues are discussed throughout this memo
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13.
[1] Linn, J., "Privacy Enhancement for Internet Electronic Mail:
I: Message Encryption and Authentication Procedures", RFC 1421,
IAB IRTF PSRG, IETF PEM WG, February 1993.
[2] Kent, S., "Privacy Enhancement for Internet Electronic Mail:
II: Certificate-Based Key Management", RFC 1422, IAB IRTF PSRG
IETF PEM, BBN, February 1993.
[3] Balenson, D., "Privacy Enhancement for Internet Electronic Mail
Part III: Algorithms, Modes, and Identifiers", RFC 1423, IAB
PSRG, IETF PEM WG, TIS, February 1993.
[4] Kaliski, B., "Privacy Enhancement for Internet Electronic Mail
Part IV: Key Certification and Related Services", RFC 1424,
Laboratories, February 1993.
14. Author's
Nils Harald
Norwegian Computing
Gaustadallien 23
P.O.Box 114 Blindern
N-0314 Oslo,
Phone: (+47) 22 85 25 00
Fax : (+47) 22 69 76 60
EMail: Nils.Harald.Berge@nr.
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