On Sat, Jun 4, 2016 at 3:17 PM, Ben Laurie <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
> On 4 June 2016 at 20:01, Peter Bowen <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>> Section 5.1 has a requirement that a log MUST only accept certificates
>> (or precertificates) that include a full valid chain to a trusted root
>> in the submission.  This appears to exclude any option for a log to
>> have a priori knowledge of intermediate CAs and accept submissions
>> with incomplete chains.  It also means that the log cannot decide to
>> accept certificates that are incorrectly constructed by the CA.
>>
>> I would suggest the following alternative for the first paragraph of 5.1:
>>
>> Logs SHOULD verify that each submitted certificate or precertificate
>> has a valid signature chain to an accepted trust anchor, using the
>> chain of intermediate CA certificates provided by the submitter. Logs
>> MUST accept certificates and precertificates that are fully valid
>> according to <xref target="RFC5280">RFC 5280</xref> verification rules
>> and are submitted with such a chain. Logs MAY accept certificates and
>> precertificates that have expired, are not yet valid, have been
>> revoked, or are otherwise not fully valid according to RFC 5280
>> verification rules in order to accommodate quirks of CA
>> certificate-issuing software. However, logs MUST reject submissions
>> without a known valid signature chain to an accepted trust anchor.
>> Logs SHOULD also reject precertificates that do not conform to the
>> requirements in <xref target="Precertificates"/>.  Logs MAY accept
>> objects other than certificates and precertificates that have a known
>> valid signature chain to an accepted trust anchor.
>
>
> I think this is all getting too complicated and in the wrong direction.
>
> The intent of this section was that logs should have some mechanism to
> control spam. We (the authors) had decided that the mechanism was going to
> be "issued by a trusted CA" for some value of "trusted", which is fine, but
> should not have been enshrined.
>
> The intent is that logs should contain information that may or may not be of
> interest to you. They are not arbiters of truth or correctness (other than
> their own honesty). Spam makes logs difficult to use, so they need a spam
> control mechanism. But we should not mandate what that mechanism is.
>
> Yes, I am saying my own I-D is wrong. :-)
>
> I think the fix is to say that logs should take measures to limit their
> size, e.g. "chains up to a trusted CA", but not mandate what that mechanism
> is.
>
> Browsers, monitors, etc, can make up their own minds what a reasonable size
> for a log is. Presumably something not wildly different from the size of the
> set of certs they are interested in.

Ah, good.  My preference is that the I-D/RFC only discuss the
technical details and leave policy to the log operator.  Given that
the doc is in last call, I was trying to take a compromise approach by
leaving in most of the existing text.

What about just removing the whole first paragraph?

Thanks,
Peter

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