Ryan, you are correct.  WebTrust for RA has been completed, version 1.0 
effective April 30, 2019.  We are now in the process of finalizing the 
illustrative report.

Jeff Ward, CPA, CGMA, CITP, CISA, CISSP, CEH
National Managing Partner Third Party Attestation (SOC/WebTrust/Cybersecurity)
314-889-1220 (Direct)    347-1220 (Internal)
314-387-0189 (Mobile)
[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>

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From: Public <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Ryan Sleevi via Public
Sent: Tuesday, June 18, 2019 12:52 PM
To: Jeremy Rowley <[email protected]>; CA/Browser Forum Public 
Discussion List <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [cabfpub] Audits and RAs

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On Tue, Jun 18, 2019 at 1:35 PM Jeremy Rowley via Public 
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
I think I heard the WebTrust auditors say last week that they have finished or 
nearly finished the WebTrust for RAs criteria. The language from Section 8.4 of 
the guidelines reads:

“For Delegated Third Parties which are not Enterprise RAs,, then the CA SHALL 
obtain an audit report, issued under the auditing standards that underlie the 
accepted audit schemes found in Section 8.1, that provides an opinion whether 
the Delegated Third Party’s performance complies with either the Delegated 
Third Party’s practice statement or the CA’s Certificate Policy and/or 
Certification Practice Statement. If the opinion is that the Delegated Third 
Party does not comply, then the CA SHALL not allow the Delegated Third Party to 
continue performing delegated functions.”

We know some CAs use RAs that are not audited under WebTrust/ETSI because 
“there is no appropriate audit standard”. Now that there is an audit standards, 
it seems to me this criteria goes into effect immediately and any RA not 
audited would cause the CA to be out of compliance with the BRs. No additional 
ballot required since the concept is already baked into the BRs.

Anyone have a different interpretation?  If not, when is the exact date that 
the audits should be done? Already?

TL;DR: Don't worry. I don't think there's an impending doom date.

Officially, Chrome is not planning to immediately enforce the WebTrust for RAs 
audit, and is still evaluating the most effective means to use and consume this.

For best results, however, don't use RAs ;)

Here's the alternative interpretation I'll over you:

The "auditing standards that underlie the accepted audit criteria" are, in the 
case of WebTrust, are SSAE 18 (US), CSAE 3000 - 3001 (CA), and ISAE 3000 
(elsewhere), with potentially jurisidiction-specific (self-?)regulatory 
requirements or modifications, similar to the US/CA harmonization with IFAC.

The "auditing standards that underlie the accepted audit criteria" are, for 
ETSI EN 319 411-1 and ETSI EN 319 403, either (depending on your perspective of 
"standard"), going to be seen as:
  a) ETSI EN 319 411-1 / ETSI EN 319 403
  b) ISO/IEC 17065

The former takes the view that the ETSI ESI documents are themselves the 
standards for auditing, in that they define a set of standards appropriate for 
"an" audit scheme, although absent the eIDAS Regulation lacks any normative 
guidance about who the defining authority is for the appropriate auditor 
(compared to IFAC and its constituent organizations, which does).

The latter takes the view that the ETSI ESI documents are themselves adopted 
from the ISO/IEC standards and guidance on the development of certification 
schemes (which covers a broad scheme of activities), and that any scheme 
derived from the principles of 17065 is suitably empowered. It, similarly, 
lacks the guidance as to who can perform the assessments, since that is the 
role of the scheme operator (e.g. EU in the case of eIDAS)

The "nice" thing about these interpretations is that for CAs that are concerned 
about being beyond reproach, but still make the (unfortunate) choice to make 
use of delegated third parties, they can read these requirements as using the 
relevant criteria from WebTrust or ETSI, under the existing supervisory scheme, 
and argue compliance. CAs that don't like to/don't want to know what their RAs 
are doing, and aren't as concerned about security, could reasonably argue that 
the applicability of the underlying standard means the CA defines what the 
expectations are (for example, an "Agreed Upon Procedures" report - which I'm 
sure Don and Jeff will jump in mentioning the CSAE limitations there), and then 
allow 'anyone' to perform that audit, modulo the IFAC standards with respect to 
professional licensure.




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