 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
The Server-based Certificate Validation Protocol (SCVP) is an Internet protocol for determining the path between an X.509 digital certificate and a trusted root (Delegated Path Discovery) and the validation of that path (Delegated Path Validation) according to a particular validation policy.
When a relying party receives a digital certificate and needs to decide whether to trust the certificate, it first needs to determine whether the certificate can be linked to a trusted certificate. This process may involve chaining the certificate back through several issuers, such as the following case:
Equifax Secure eBusiness CA-1 ACME Co Certificate Authority Joe User
Currently, the creation of this chain of certificates is performed by the application receiving the signed message. The process is termed "path discovery" and the resulting chain is called a "certification path". Many Windows applications, such as Outlook, use Cryptographic Application Programming Interface (CAPI) for path discovery.
CAPI is capable of building certification paths using any certificates that are installed in Windows certificate stores or provided by the relying party application. The Equifax CA certificate, for example, comes installed in Windows as a trusted certificate. If CAPI knows about the ACME Co CA certificate or if it is included in a signed email and made available to CAPI by Outlook, CAPI can create the certification path above. However, if CAPI cannot find the ACME Co CA certificate, it has no way to verify that Joe User is trusted.
SCVP provides us with a standards-based client-server protocol for solving this problem using Delegated Path Discovery, or DPD. When using DPD, a relying party asks a server for a certification path that meets its needs. The SCVP client's request contains the certificate that it is attempting to trust and a set of trusted certificates. The SCVP server's response contains a set of certificates making up a valid path between the certificate in question and one of the trusted certificates. The response may also contain proof of revocation status, such as OCSP responses, for the certificates in the path.
Once a certification path has been constructed, it needs to be validated. An algorithm for validating certification paths is defined in RFC 5280 section 6 (signatures, expiration, name constraints, policy constraints, basic constraints, etc.). Again, this could be done locally by the client or by the SCVP server with Delegated Path Validation.
SCVP facilitates Federated PKIs, such as one with a Bridge Certificate Authority.
Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is an extension of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). It uses encryption for secure communication over a computer network, and is widely used on the Internet. In HTTPS, the communication protocol is encrypted using Transport Layer Security (TLS) or, formerly, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). The protocol is therefore also referred to as HTTP over TLS, or HTTP over SSL.
Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a cryptographic protocol designed to provide communications security over a computer network. The protocol is widely used in applications such as email, instant messaging, and voice over IP, but its use in securing HTTPS remains the most publicly visible.
A public key infrastructure (PKI) is a set of roles, policies, hardware, software and procedures needed to create, manage, distribute, use, store and revoke digital certificates and manage public-key encryption. The purpose of a PKI is to facilitate the secure electronic transfer of information for a range of network activities such as e-commerce, internet banking and confidential email. It is required for activities where simple passwords are an inadequate authentication method and more rigorous proof is required to confirm the identity of the parties involved in the communication and to validate the information being transferred.
In cryptography, a public key certificate, also known as a digital certificate or identity certificate, is an electronic document used to prove the validity of a public key. The certificate includes the public key and information about it, information about the identity of its owner, and the digital signature of an entity that has verified the certificate's contents. If the device examining the certificate trusts the issuer and finds the signature to be a valid signature of that issuer, then it can use the included public key to communicate securely with the certificate's subject. In email encryption, code signing, and e-signature systems, a certificate's subject is typically a person or organization. However, in Transport Layer Security (TLS) a certificate's subject is typically a computer or other device, though TLS certificates may identify organizations or individuals in addition to their core role in identifying devices. TLS, sometimes called by its older name Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), is notable for being a part of HTTPS, a protocol for securely browsing the web.
In cryptography, X.509 is an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) standard defining the format of public key certificates. X.509 certificates are used in many Internet protocols, including TLS/SSL, which is the basis for HTTPS, the secure protocol for browsing the web. They are also used in offline applications, like electronic signatures.
In cryptography, a certificate revocation list (CRL) is "a list of digital certificates that have been revoked by the issuing certificate authority (CA) before their scheduled expiration date and should no longer be trusted". CRLs are no longer required by the CA/Browser forum, as alternate certificate revocation technologies are increasingly used instead. Nevertheless, CRLs are still widely used by the CAs.
In cryptography, a certificate authority or certification authority (CA) is an entity that stores, signs, and issues digital certificates. A digital certificate certifies the ownership of a public key by the named subject of the certificate. This allows others to rely upon signatures or on assertions made about the private key that corresponds to the certified public key. A CA acts as a trusted third party—trusted both by the subject (owner) of the certificate and by the party relying upon the certificate. The format of these certificates is specified by the X.509 or EMV standard.
The Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) are a suite of extension specifications by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) for securing data exchanged in the Domain Name System (DNS) in Internet Protocol (IP) networks. The protocol provides cryptographic authentication of data, authenticated denial of existence, and data integrity, but not availability or confidentiality.
The certification path validation algorithm is the algorithm which verifies that a given certificate path is valid under a given public key infrastructure (PKI). A path starts with the Subject certificate and proceeds through a number of intermediate certificates up to a trusted root certificate, typically issued by a trusted certificate authority (CA).
The Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) is an Internet protocol used for obtaining the revocation status of an X.509 digital certificate. It is described in RFC 6960 and is on the Internet standards track. It was created as an alternative to certificate revocation lists (CRL), specifically addressing certain problems associated with using CRLs in a public key infrastructure (PKI). Messages communicated via OCSP are encoded in ASN.1 and are usually communicated over HTTP. The "request/response" nature of these messages leads to OCSP servers being termed OCSP responders.
Delegated Path Validation (DPV) is a method for offloading to a trusted server the work involved in validating a public key certificate.
Delegated Path Discovery (DPD) is a method for querying a trusted server for information about a public key certificate.
The Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) stapling, formally known as the TLS Certificate Status Request extension, is a standard for checking the revocation status of X.509 digital certificates. It allows the presenter of a certificate to bear the resource cost involved in providing Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) responses by appending ("stapling") a time-stamped OCSP response signed by the CA to the initial TLS handshake, eliminating the need for clients to contact the CA, with the aim of improving both security and performance.
PKI Resource Query Protocol (PRQP) is an Internet protocol used for obtaining information about services associated with an X.509 Certificate Authority. It is described by RFC 7030 published on October 23, 2013. PRQP aims to improve Interoperability and Usabilities issues among PKIs, helping finding services and data repositories associated with a CA. Messages communicated via PRQP are encoded in ASN.1 and are usually communicated over HTTP.
Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI), also known as Resource Certification, is a specialized public key infrastructure (PKI) framework to support improved security for the Internet's BGP routing infrastructure.
DNS-based Authentication of Named Entities (DANE) is an Internet security protocol to allow X.509 digital certificates, commonly used for Transport Layer Security (TLS), to be bound to domain names using Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC).
Let's Encrypt is a non-profit certificate authority run by Internet Security Research Group (ISRG) that provides X.509 certificates for Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption at no charge. It is the world's largest certificate authority, used by more than 300 million websites, with the goal of all websites being secure and using HTTPS. The Internet Security Research Group (ISRG), the provider of the service, is a public benefit organization. Major sponsors include the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the Mozilla Foundation, OVH, Cisco Systems, Facebook, Google Chrome, Internet Society, AWS, NGINX, and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Other partners include the certificate authority IdenTrust, the University of Michigan (U-M), and the Linux Foundation.
DNS Certification Authority Authorization (CAA) is an Internet security policy mechanism that allows domain name holders to indicate to certificate authorities whether they are authorized to issue digital certificates for a particular domain name. It does this by means of a "CAA" Domain Name System (DNS) resource record.
Application Layer Transport Security (ALTS) is a Google-developed authentication and transport encryption system used for securing Remote Procedure Call (RPC) within Google machines. Google started its development in 2007, as a tailored modification of TLS.
In public key cryptography, a certificate may be revoked before it expires, which signals that it is no longer valid. Without revocation, an attacker could exploit such a compromised or misissued certificate until expiry. Hence, revocation is an important part of a public key infrastructure. Revocation is performed by the issuing certificate authority, which produces a cryptographically authenticated statement of revocation.
 | This Internet-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
