At 09:41 AM 6/30/98 +0100, William Ottaway wrote:
I could propose a paragraph but I would like to hold off for a while. We
will be releasing an internet draft on domain security services using
S/MIME within the next couple of weeks and I want to take on board the
comments it will raise before addressing the Countersignature issue.
Well, I would rather not delay the S/MIME work, so I'll propose one. Anyone
should feel free to comment on this.
A countersignature can be created without the countersigner knowing the
original content. The recipient who is validating the countersignature has
no way of knowing if the signature that was countersigned is valid without
checking that signature as well. Thus, a recipient who can validate a
countersignature but cannot validate the original signature must not infer
that the content that was signed has not been modified, and must not infer
that the original signer actually had access to the content.
--Paul Hoffman, Director
--Internet Mail Consortium