Phil,

Presuming that CA Alpha and CA Beta are different organizations, which are
not affiliated, then the cross-signed Intermediate CA Gamma certificate
does not meet the requirements of 7.1.2.2.3, namely:

The extKeyUsage extension MAY be “unrestricted” as described in the
following table if: ‐ the
organizationName represented in the Issuer and Subject names of the
corresponding certificate
are either: ‐ the same, or ‐ the organizationName represented in the
Subject name is an affiliate of
the organizationName represented in the Issuer name ....


In this hypothetical scenario, the issuer of the cross-signed intermediate
certificate would be "organizationName=CA Alpha", but the subject would be
"organizationName=CA Beta".  While this subject correlation matches the
cross-signed "Root CA Beta", that is not considered when determining the
extKeyUsage requirements.

On Tue, Aug 8, 2023 at 11:00 AM 'Phil Porada' via
[email protected] <[email protected]> wrote:

> Suppose there are three key-pairs identified by the following names:
>
>    - Root CA Alpha
>    - Root CA Beta
>    - Intermediate CA Gamma
>
> Suppose a fairly traditional hierarchy utilizing those key-pairs:
>
>    - Root CA Alpha has issued a certificate over its own public key. This
>    self-signed cert must comply with BRs 7.1.2.1 Root CA Certificate Profile.
>    - Root CA Beta has issued a certificate over its own public key. Same
>    as above.
>    - Root CA Beta has issued a basicConstraints CA=true cert over
>    Intermediate CA Gamma's public key. Intermediate CA Gamma must comply with
>    BRs 7.1.2.6 TLS Subordinate CA Certificate Profile.
>
> Suppose that Root CA Alpha also cross-signs Root CA Beta. This cross-sign
> would normally be a TLS Subordinate CA Certificate Profile, subject to
> BRs 7.1.2.6, except that it also matches the definition of BRs 7.1.2.2
> Cross-Certified Subordinate CA. Specifically it is "a CA Certificate using
> the same Subject Name and Subject Public Key Information as one or more
> existing CA Certificate(s), whether a Root CA Certificate or Subordinate CA
> Certificate." Therefore it has slightly looser requirements, namely in
> terms of extKeyUsages. This makes sense, as the whole point of the
> Cross-Certified Subordinate CA profile is to allow cross-certs to more
> closely match the original cert they're cross-signing.Suppose that Root
> CA Alpha also cross-signs Intermediate CA Gamma. Now we arrive at a
> problem. This certificate also meets the qualifications of a 7.1.2.2
> Cross-Certified Subordinate CA: it has the same Subject Name and Public Key
> as an existing CA Certificate. This means that the EKU extension can be
> omitted entirely because it is "unrestricted". But this is very surprising!
> The TLS Subordinate CA Certificate it is cross-signing is clearly required
> to have EKUs. Why does this cross-sign get to omit them? It feels like this
> certificate should be required to abide by the 7.1.2.6 TLS Subordinate CA
> Certificate Profile, even though it meets the qualifications of 7.1.2.2.
>
> If I have confused something, I apologize. Thank you for any guidance here.
>
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-- 
-TZ

"When I am working on a problem I never think about beauty. I only think
about how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution
is not beautiful, I know it is wrong."
    - Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983)

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