> On Dec 13, 2020, at 2:10 PM, Ivaylo Petrov <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> 
>    x5chain:  This header parameter contains an ordered array of X.509
>       certificates.  The certificates are to be ordered starting with
>       the certificate containing the end-entity key followed by the
>       certificate which signed it and so on.  There is no requirement
>       for the entire chain to be present in the element if there is
>       reason to believe that the relying party already has, or can
>       locate the missing certificates.  This means that the relying
> 
> Are the missing certificates required to be contiguous and contain the
> root?  That is, is it okay to leave a gap in the middle of the chain?
> 
> [IP]: My reading of the text is that it would not make sense to have a gap in 
> the middle. My understanding is that each certificate in the chain after the 
> first one should sign the one that came before it.

I agree with Ivaylo on this. JWS is clear about this for the equivalent x5c 
parameter: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7515#section-4.1.6


> 
>    [still x5chain]
>       This header parameter allows for a single X.509 certificate or a
>       chain of X.509 certificates to be carried in the message.
> 
> It's slightly surprising that the "chain" structure allows for a single
> certificate not in an array container; it might be intuitively more
> simple to just always use the array encoding for a chain, even a
> one-element chain.  But I'm sure there's some reason to allow it, too,
> just not one that I thought of right away.
> 
> [IP]: I can only see this as saving us 1 byte, but probably there are other 
> reasons as well.

Seems like it would be less code if it was always an array and more inline with 
JWS.


> [IP]: I like this wording and I added it as you suggested it.
> 
>    x5u:  This header parameter provides the ability to identify an X.509
>    [...]
>       As this header parameter implies a trust relationship, the
>       attribute MUST be in the protected attribute bucket.
> 
> In light of the secdir reviewer's comments, perhaps "a trust
> relationship between the party generating the x5u parameter and the
> party hosting the referred-to resource" would help?
> 
> [IP]: Done.

Not sure where everyone’s thinking is about replicating section 6 from JWS 
<https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7515#section-6>. As you know I’ve mentioned 
this before and I think it is necessary.

LL


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