On Fri, Jul 22, 2016 at 12:52 PM, Yaron Sheffer <[email protected]>
wrote:

> On 21/07/16 12:36, Sean Leonard wrote:
>
>>
>> On Jul 20, 2016, at 2:51 AM, Yaron Sheffer <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>> Option 2: Certificate Delegation
>>>
>>> This option moves more of the responsibility to the ACME server.
>>>
>>> 1. Domain owner contacts the ACME server and obtains a "delegation
>>> ticket" which is specific to the TLS server. The ticket is good for a
>>> long period, e.g. 1 year.
>>>
>>> 2. TLS server regularly contacts the ACME server, proves ownership of
>>> the delegation ticket, and receives a short-term certificate.
>>>
>>> If something bad happens, the domain owner contacts the ACME server and
>>> revokes the delegation ticket.
>>>
>>
>> I just wanted to check some intuition out here.
>>
>> Would an [RFC5755] Attribute Certificate work effectively as a
>> “delegation ticket”, within the meaning of Option 2 that you’re proposing?
>>
>> I know people want to hate on ACs, and they aren’t widely deployed. But
>> maybe that would be the right kind of pre-existing protocol element for
>> this sort of thing.
>>
>> AC has a Holder field; presumably the holder field would identify the the
>> TLS server, the main certificate, or both.
>>
>> Proving ownership of the delegation ticket, is just transmitting the AC.
>> Possession is sufficient.
>>
>> ACs can be revoked, as they use the same machinery as regular
>> certificates, via CRLs (and OCSP). Again, component reuse.
>>
>> ACs are signed, so they are verifiable as coming from the ACME server. If
>> you don’t like full public-key signatures you can generate a “signature”
>> (with a new/appropriate OID) based on some shared secret.
>>
>> ACs have dates. So that part is satisfied.
>>
>> You can still hate on ACs and invent some different thing; you could also
>> use SAML or whatever. Just checking the intuition, and thinking about
>> reusing existing componentry. Where do ACs match up, and where do they
>> break down?
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Sean
>>
>>
> Hi Sean,
>
> Attribute certs would have been a wonderful fit here, but to the best of
> my knowledge, they've never been (widely) implemented. They have been a
> great idea with no practical use since 2002. And if we propose to use them
> here, it's a sure way to kill this option outright.
>
> More specifically, when you say "ACs can be revoked" this is somewhat
> ironic. The generally accepted wisdom is that certificates cannot be
> reliably revoked today, and in fact this is the main reason why we need
> short-term certificates for the CDN use case!
>

Yeah, I sent the following to Sean yesterday and forgot to CC the list:

"""
I mean, technically yes, ACs would work here, in the sense that a tank will
get you to the office :)

I think the more likely candidate is OAuth, since (a) ACME is based on
HTTP, and (b) OAuth is built for delegating authorization.
"""

--Richard




>
> Thanks,
>         Yaron
>
>
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