Final Minutes for CA/Browser Forum Teleconference 13 April 2017 (Approved April 
27)

Attendees: Arno Fiedler (D-TRUST), Atsushi Inaba (GlobalSign), Ben Wilson 
(DigiCert), Bruce Morton (Entrust), Christopher Kemmerer (SSL.com), Curt Spann 
(Apple), Dean Coclin (Symantec), Dimitris Zacharopoulos (Harica), Doug Beattie 
(GlobalSign), Frank Corday (Trustwave), Gervase Markham (Mozilla), JC Jones 
(Mozilla), Jeremy Rowley (DigiCert), Jos Purvis (Cisco), Kirk Hall (Entrust), 
Leo Grove (SSL.com), Li-Chun Chen (Chunghwa Telecom), Masakazu Asano 
(GlobalSign), Patrick Tronnier (OATI), Peter Bowen (Amazon), Peter Miscovic, 
(Disig), Rich Smith (Comodo), Rick Andrews (Symantec), Ryan Sleevi (Google), 
Tarah Wheeler (Symantec), Tim Hollebeek (Trustwave), Tyler Myers (GoDaddy), 
Virginia Fournier (Apple), Wayne Thayer (GoDaddy).

1.           Roll Call

2.           Read Antitrust Statement

3.           Review Agenda.  The Agenda was approved.


4.           a) Approve Minutes of CABF teleconference of March 16, 2017.  The 
Minutes were approved.



b) Complete F2F meeting minutes: Kirk noted that Minutes had not yet been 
submitted for the following recent F2F meeting segments, and asked the people 
who had agreed to provide Minutes to do so as soon as possible and upload them 
to the wiki.  He also noted that the leaders of the various breakout sessions 
for three Future of Web PKI segments had been asked to write Minutes for their 
sessions, but he had not written down the discussion topics chosen for the 
sessions or the names of the leaders.  Ben said he would listen to the 
recordings and find the topics and names, after which the leaders will be asked 
to complete Minutes for their sessions.



Missing Minutes: , Dean - Governance Change WG, Jeremy - Validation WG, Doug- 
Microsoft Program Update, Liang - 360 Update, Eric Mill - GSA update, Andrew 
Whalley - The Role and Relationship of the Forum, Dean Coclin - Meeting 41 in 
Berlin, Germany and future meeting volunteers, Future of Web PKI - Part 1 (2 
sessions) - (to be determined), Future of Web PKI - Part 2 (2 sessions) - (to 
be determined), Future of Web PKI - Part 3 (multiple sessions) - (to be 
determined).
5.           Governance Change Working Group update. Ben said the WG had a call 
the prior Tuesday and went through the Bylaws changes on a shared document, and 
has started to edit the sections on Working Groups based on the proposed new 
structure.   He said all were welcome to help edit, and if they wanted the URL 
for the joint document to contact him.  Virginia said she had not been able to 
be on the call, but would soon offer edits.  Dean asked if the WG had tried 
using the WebEx account set up for the Forum by Cisco, and Ben said he would 
first try a dry run.  Dean said this could be useful in editing the Bylaws, as 
all participants can view the same document.

6.           Validation Working Group update.  Jeremy said the WG had met 
recently and finished up the domain validation methods, Ballot 190.  A ballot 
on IP address validation methods was ready, and a ballot to require a 
commonName for all root and intermediate certificates was being considered.  
Two or three additional ballots are almost ready.

7.           Policy Review Working Group update.  Ben said the WG had lost its 
time slot to another WG, and Ben and Dimitris agreed to set a new meeting time 
just before the next Forum teleconference.  They are still working on uses of 
the term "CA" and related terms in the BRs.

8.           Patent Advisory Group (PAG) update.  PAG Conclusion and 
publication - Kirk noted that the Ballot 182 PAG Conclusion and Minutes bundle 
had been sent to the Management list before the meeting.  He reviewed the 
Conclusion, and said there was no need for the Forum to approve the Conclusion 
(as it is the report of the PAG).  Unless there was an objection, Kirk planned 
to (1) post the documents to the Public mailing list, and also (2) post to the 
Forum's public website.  There were no objections.  Kirk again said the PAG 
result had been very useful, and thanked Virginia and the others who 
participated.

9.           Ballot Status.

Ballots in voting period: Kirk noted the following ballots were now in the 
voting period.  There was no discussion of the ballots.


a)     Ballot 189 - Amend BR 6.1.7 to clarify signing by root keys (Dimitris) 
IN VOTING PERIOD (ends APRIL 13)

b)     Ballot 194 -  Effective Date of Ballot 193 Provisions (Chris): IN VOTING 
PERIOD (ends April 16)

c)      Ballot 195 - CAA Fixup (Gerv) IN VOTING PERIOD (ends April 17)

d)     Ballot 196 - Define "Audit Period" (Gerv) IN VOTING PERIOD (ends April 
17)



Ballots in discussion period: Kirk noted the following ballot was in the 
discussion period, and asked if anyone wanted to discuss it.



e)     Ballot 190 - BR 3.2.2.4 Validation Methods (Jeremy): IN DISCUSSION 
PERIOD (ends April 19).

Jeremy said the ballot was intended to restore the BR 3.2.2.4 validation 
methods to what it was after Ballot 169, but with a few modifications for 
issues identified.  Ryan said that as worded, Ballot 190 would require CAs to 
revalidate all domains (and not reuse prior validation data) for any domain 
validation method that had been modified by Ballot 190.



Gerv asked if Ryan saw that applying on a per-method basis, so no revalidation 
would be required if there was no change to the method.  Ryan said the BRs 
require domain validation at the time of issuance of each certificate at the 
time of issuance, but allowed reuse of data under certain circumstances.  So 
previous data can be reused if the validation method has not changed under 
Ballot 190.  However, methods such as demonstration of control via the website 
would have to be redone for all domains because of the change to the methods in 
Ballot 190.



Kirk asked Ryan how he interpreted Section 2 of the ballot, which says 
revalidation is not required for domains that were properly validated by the 
methods permitted before Ballot 190 so long as they are still within the 
permitted data reuse period, and indicated he didn't agree with Ryan's 
interpretation that domains would have to be revalidated if the methods had 
changed under Ballot 190.  Ryan said he thought Section 2 was badly worded and 
had no meaningful force.  He said Section 2 did not change the BR section 
requiring validation of every certificate at time of issuance and that any 
change needed to update the BR document itself; in his opinion, Section 2 was 
null and void.  There was further discussion of this issue.  Ryan said more 
work on Ballot 190 was needed.  Kirk asked if Ryan would submit his suggested 
edits to the Ballot.  Ryan said the proponents of the ballot should address his 
concerns or he would vote no.



Gerv noted that Ryan's position provided enormous disincentive to incremental 
improvements to methods of validation, and mentioned the web server method of 
validation as an example - the method requires the use of the .well-known path. 
 If later the Forum decides to require the use of a sub-directory under 
.well-known - an incremental improvement - there will be enormous disincentive 
for CAs to agree to this if they have to revet all their customers.  If every 
single incremental change invalidates all prior data, that will be a 
disincentive to change.  The result could be that the validation methods get 
stuck, and no one will want to change them.



Ryan said Ballot 190 is just like Ballot 169, and said that Section 2 will have 
no force because it will not be part of the BRs.  Gerv said if Section 2 is 
reworded in response to Ryan's concern, but still made it clear that 
revalidation was not required, would Google vote for the ballot, or would it 
vote no because it wants to see revalidation?   Ryan said Google would vote no 
even if Section 2 is reworded, because the current permitted period for reuse 
of validation data is too long to wait for revalidation using the new methods.  
If revalidation is not required in some fashion by Ballot 190, Google may adopt 
it as a root program requirement and treat reuse of the data as certificate 
misissuance even if permitted by Ballot 190.



Gerv suggested it might be wise to take each method individually and not as a 
group, as the level of change varied from method to method, and to allow 
previous validations to be reused for some.  Ryan said Google was most 
interested in seeing the new methods for website validation implemented 
quickly, as they have seen multiple instances of improper validation using the 
current method and leading to misissuance, which is unacceptable.  But Google 
might be open to allowing reuse of validation data for other methods.  Gerv 
suggested the drafters of Ballot 190 might want to consider that information.



Ballots in IPR Review Period: Kirk noted the following ballot had passed during 
the voting period, and was now in the IPR Review Period.  There was no 
discussion.



f)       Ballot 193 - 825-day Certificate Lifetimes (Chris): IN IPR REVIEW 
PERIOD (ends April 22)



Ballot drafts: Kirk noted the following ballot drafts had been mentioned or 
circulated, and asked for an update on each.



g)     Ballot 184 - RFC 822 Names and otherNames, SRV names.  Jeremy said the 
ballot still needs some work and is not yet ready.



h)     Ballot 186 - Limiting reuse of validation information.  Ryan said the 
discussion on Ballot 190 and Section 2 was useful, as the whole purpose of 
Ballot 186 was to reduce that loophole (i.e., reuse of validation data).  The 
goal should clearly be that the reuse of validated information should be 
appropriate to the source of that validated information, meaning for example 
that the reuse of the file-based domain control method and data should not 
exceed 24 hours, and the reuse of domain name information should not exceed 7 
days.  The goal for many of the validation methods, except where there is a 
complex set of business and legal realities, should be limited to no more than 
one month.  Kirk asked if Ryan planned to move forward with Ballot 186, and 
Ryan said yes, in parallel with Ballot 190.  However, he said the introduction 
of Section 2 in Ballot 190 creates a conflict with Ballot 186.  One possibility 
is to combine Ballots 186 and 190, or pass Ballot 190 without Section 2 and 
address the remaining matters in Ballot 186.



i)       Ballot 191 - Clarify Place of Business Info.  Jeremy said the ballot 
was ready to go, and needs endorsers.  He thought there were two endorsers on 
the last Validation Working Group call but couldn't remember who they were, and 
the sound quality of the recording was poor.  He asked the endorsers to contact 
him so the ballot could proceed.



j)       Ballot 192- Notary Clarification.  Jeremy said the ballot was still in 
discussion and not yet ready.



k)      Require commonName in Root and Intermediate Certificates.  Gerv said he 
had made revisions and just sent the ballot out again.  He is looking for two 
endorsers.


l)       RAs and Delegated Third Parties.  Gerv said he had circulated a first 
draft ballot, and a revised second draft was coming.  There was a discussion of 
the differences (if any) between an external RA and a defined Delegated Third 
Party.  Ryan said the RA role performed by anyone except the CA is a Delegated 
Third Party.  There was also a discussion of whether or not a QIIS (such as 
Hoover's/D&B or a WhoIs aggregation service) would ever be considered a 
Delegated Third Party.



m)    Expected ASN.1 grammar for BR & EV certificates.  Peter said he is 
working on a ballot.


n)     RFC5280-related Ballot.  Ben said he had modified his prior draft ballot 
to focus only on the issue of underscore characters, and the ballot was ready.  
He was looking for endorsers.  He noted the comments on the list about UTF-8 
strings, and would amend his ballot accordingly.


o)     Bylaws change - Membership requirements.  Gerv had amended his first 
draft and recently posted it to the list.  The proposal is in the pre-ballot 
stage, and he is looking for discussion but not yet for endorsers.

10.         Follow-up on F2F issues: Kirk noted the Forum had enjoyed very 
productive discussions at the recent Face-to-Face meeting hosted by Cisco in 
Research Triangle Park, and said he had listed the main discussion items from 
the Agenda.  He wanted to see if the members who had led discussion of an issue 
planned any follow-up after the meeting.  Kirk also said if he had forgotten 
any issues for which follow-up was appropriate, he hoped members would add them 
to the list.


a)     Create process for adoption of post-SHA2 algorithms.  Kirk said he 
planned to work with Phill to create some sort of document that proposed a 
procedure by which the Forum members could keep track of developments around 
current and future encryption algorithms and a plan for the steps the Forum 
would take in the event it is ever necessary to move from SHA-2 to a different 
algorithm.  Ryan said he was doubtful of this approach.  Peter said he was 
preparing a document the members could review on this issue.



b)     SHA1 deprecation / lessons learned.  Ryan said he further discussion 
would occur on the Public list.


c)      Role and relationship of the Forum.  No follow-up.


d)     Code of conduct.  Virginia said she had sent a proposal to Tarah (who is 
travelling) and hopes to have something ready for the members to consider on 
their next teleconference.


e)     Revocation checking.  Robin was not on the call, so there was no 
discussion of any follow-up.


f)       Use of Trello board to keep track of Forum projects.  Peter said if he 
has any follow-up to propose, he will send it in as a future agenda item.


g)     Updates to RFC 5280 / process for exceptions.  Jeremy said that Ben's 
draft ballot on RFC 5280 was the follow-up for this item.


h)     Other "Future of Web PKI" sessions.  Ben said he will compile a list of 
the presenters for each of the topics discussed and we can then ask them if 
they think any follow-up is appropriate.


i)       Other F2F issues.  There were no other F2F issues.

11.         Next F2F meeting: June 20-22, 2017 Berlin (D-Trust) - Kirk noted 
that Arno had posted a range of hotels on the wiki and recommended that members 
who planned to attend should book their rooms now.  There are no special 
booking codes.

Oct. 3-5, 2017 Taipei (Chunghwa Telecom) - Li-Chun said there had been a change 
in the meeting hotels, and details would be available on the wiki.

12.         Any Other Business.  There was no other business.

13.         Next call April 27, 2017.

14.         Adjourn.


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