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Re: Comment on ESS and Privacy Marks

1998-03-26 19:07:29
Chris,

I agree with Paul that the ESSSecuritylabel is completely compatible with
the X.411 SecurityLabel when the privacyMark choice is PrintableString. In
fact, I would encourage you to propose to the ITU that the X.411
securityLabel should be similarly enhanced.

Furthermore, I respectfully disagree with your counter-proposal of defining
a standard securityCategory syntax to hold the privacyMark UTF8String.  The
X.411 spec states that the security policy in force (identified by the
securityLabel security-policy-identifier) is used to indicate the syntaxes
that are allowed to be present in the securityLabel security-categories.
This implies that every organization's security policy (that uses the
ESSSecurityLabel) would have to include the standard definition of the
privacyMark security-category using the identical OID.  IMHO, there is no
way that all of the organizations are going to agree on any standard
security-categories or using an identical OID.  Security-categories are
considered to be a matter of local policy and the various organizations are
not going to accept a standard security category forced on them.

In summary, I believe that the ESSPrivacyMark should not be changed.

================================
John Pawling, jsp(_at_)jgvandyke(_dot_)com                             
J.G. Van Dyke & Associates, Inc.   
www.jgvandyke.com         
================================


At 02:54 PM 3/26/98 -0500, Bonatti, Chris wrote:
   Let's be clear, however, that conveying the UTF-8 string as a security
category allows the result to be compatible regardless of whether UTF-8 is
used.  There is already a perfectly good extension mechanism included in the
X.411 label.  Can somebody spell out for me the reason for NOT using it to
address the UTF-8 requirement?  The way I see it, the current solution is
creating a problem that does not need to be created.

Chris