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RE: Mail addresses in S/MIME certs

1999-12-22 13:59:33
At 11:55 AM 12/22/1999 , Jim Schaad (Exchange) wrote:
I am in complete agreement with Al. I looked at this issue back when the drafts were first getting started and I was just scared by the concept of allowing more that I could reasonably verify into the RFC822 address field. I had a chance as a mail program of looking at the RFC822 name, but not all of the "comments" that go along with it. While I agree that there may be some issues for display of RFC822 names vs the comment fields that are in messages, I think this is true no matter what is done and is more of a presentation/application issue

Folks,

If one insists on specific semantics to the string(s) being used, then the task is probably difficult and all the stated fears are likely valid.

To the extent that the only real issue is ensuring uniqueness, then there are emerging enhancements to the RFC822 address string that might prove useful.

In effect the enhancement is retrofitting a schema template onto the mailbox (local-part) to the address. The rough style is <key=str1/str2/... @domain>. (Apologies for the shudders this no doubt engendered among those with an X.400 background.) Also, there is still some flux in the work and so I could imagine that it will also permit <str1/str2/(_dot_)(_dot_)(_dot_)(_at_)domain> without the keyword preface.

The real point behind mentioning this is to suggest that you probably can choose to defer dealing with the issue, since it really involves matters that are larger than certs: Things like shared mailboxes, roles vs. people, etc., need to be dealt with much more generally. And they will be.

And it is looking likely that they will be dealt with in ways that will be compatible with (and transparent to) the current RFC822 address format.

d/

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Dave Crocker  <dcrocker(_at_)brandenburg(_dot_)com>
Brandenburg Consulting  <www.brandenburg.com>
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