“It would be helpful for a wide range of users (enterprises, non-profits, 
educational institutions, partners, resellers, device manufacturers) to provide 
input into this discussion to help the community formulate opinions on this 
major change.”

In an enterprise scenario, 1-year certs would make things better. We restricted 
all enterprise issuance to a max of 2 year certs simply because it was the 
minimum of the max-validity of EV and DV. What we later found is that 
sometimes, even after only 2 years, the people that originally 
installed/configured the certs did not remember how to install the cert on 
their platform, or aren’t on the same team anymore (and if they aren’t, they 
may not know who should be responsible). Most of that is easily corrected with 
documentation and process, but for the vast majority of people, certs aren’t 
their day to day life, and restricting to 1-year would assist in keeping the 
memories of installation and renewal at least a little fresher in their minds, 
help with budgeting, and of course, help the ecosystem overall.
To Doug’s earlier question, “If the cert is 1 year vs. 3 is there a 
difference?” Yes, (trying not to be too tongue and cheek..) there is. It’s a 
difference of 2 years of waiting before the browsers, CAs, and site operators 
can be assured that certificates that don’t meet standards/baselines are phased 
out, it allows everyone to move forward with more agility. In just one example, 
it’s a difference of knowing that in October of 2018, all publicly trusted 
certs (valid in Chrome) will be in CT logs, rather than waiting until October 
of 2020 to be in a place where a site operator can rely on that detective 
control for misissuance.
-Carl

From: Public [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Dean Coclin via 
Public
Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2017 3:02 PM
To: CA/Browser Forum Public Discussion List <[email protected]>
Cc: Dean Coclin <[email protected]>
Subject: EXTERNAL: Re: [cabfpub] Draft Ballot 185 - Limiting the Lifetime of 
Certificates

We’ve discussed certificate lifetimes at several F2F meetings and I especially 
recall the Zurich meeting where I tried to see where folks stand by putting up 
a chart with different options for cert lifetimes. As I recall , there was no 
consensus.

Some CAs were in favor of extending EV to 3 years but browsers made it clear 
that was not on the table. Some browsers talked about reducing all certs to 1 
year but many CAs said that would not be welcome by the vast majority of 
businesses that purchase and use certificates in various applications.

I seem to recall some CAs reaching out to enterprise customers to get their 
opinions. I have to dig a little deeper to find that information but maybe 
someone on the list has that readily available.

Is there some rationale for the 12/13 month selection? Why wasn’t 6/9/14/18 
months considered? It appears a balance is being sought but it is unclear what 
parameters are being weighed in this decision process.

It would be helpful for a wide range of users (enterprises, non-profits, 
educational institutions, partners, resellers, device manufacturers) to provide 
input into this discussion to help the community formulate opinions on this 
major change.

Dean

From: Public [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ryan Sleevi via 
Public
Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2017 10:50 PM
To: CABFPub <[email protected]>
Cc: Ryan Sleevi <[email protected]>
Subject: [cabfpub] Draft Ballot 185 - Limiting the Lifetime of Certificates

I'm looking for two endorsers to publicly endorse this ballot.

Background:
The validity period of certificates represents the single greatest impediment 
towards improving the security of the Web PKI. This is because it sets the 
upper-bound on when legacy behaviours may be safely deprecated, while setting a 
practical lower-bound for how long hacks and workarounds need to be carried 
around by clients.

Further, in the event of misissuance related to internal control failures, 
rather than external security failures - for example, misissuance due to 
failing to properly vet subject information - the validity period represents 
the risk and exposure to customers and relying parties in the absence of 
revocation information (for example, constrained environments).

To keep this vote simple, it avoids any discussion of the reuse of validation 
information, described in Section 4.2.1 of the Baseline Requirements and 
Section 11.14.3 of the EV Guidelines.



The following motion has been proposed by Ryan Sleevi of Google, Inc and 
endorsed by ___ of ___ and ___ of ___ to introduce new Final Maintenance 
Guidelines for the "Baseline Requirements Certificate Policy for the Issuance 
and Management of Publicly-Trusted Certificates" and the "Guidelines for the 
Issuance and Management of Extended Validation Certificates"

-- MOTION BEGINS --
Modify Section 6.3.2 of the "Baseline Requirements Certificate Policy for the 
Issuance and Management of Publicly-Trusted Certificates" as follows:

Replace Section 6.3.2 with:
"""
6.3.2. Certificate Operational Periods and Key Pair Usage Periods

Subscriber Certificates issued on or after 1 May 2017 MUST NOT have a Validity 
Period greater than twelve (12) months.

Subscriber Certificates issued prior to 1 May 2017 MUST NOT have a Validity 
Period greater than thirty-nine (39) months.
"""

Modify Section 9.4 of the "Guidelines for the Issuance and Management of 
Extended Validation Certificates" as follows:

Replace Section 9.4 with:
""""
9.4 Maximum Validity Period for EV Certificate
EV Certificates issued on or after 1 May 2017 MUST NOT have a Validity Period 
greater than twelve (12) months.

EV Certificates issued prior to 1 May 2017 MUST NOT have a Validity Period 
greater than twenty seven (27) months.
"""
-- MOTION ENDS --
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