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Re: Why are mail servers not also key servers?

2017-04-26 23:27:20

While discussing this topic in non-list email. I had other points that came up.

(1) The cert for a domain does not necessarily have the same CA as all other certs for users in a domain.

        Example:
                admin(_at_)example(_dot_)com may have a CA assigned by
                the example.com, it could be self signed.

                doug(_at_)example(_dot_)com may have a cert provided by an
                unrelated CA to admin(_at_)example(_dot_)com

                Which can be a different cert from the site:
                        https://virtual-host.com

                That happens to be hosted on example.com

Real life example, DouglasRoyer(_at_)gmail(_dot_)com has a cert, the CA is StartCom. (This email is signed by that StartCom cert).
And it is not the same CA used by dns-admin(_at_)google(_dot_)com

Both are at google.com, both have a different CA.

(2) Certificate chains. Doug(_at_)eng(_dot_)example(_dot_)com may have a cert signed by the eng.example.com, and the eng.example.com cert may be signed by the example.com CA. The example.com CA, could be self signed, or be signed by an outside CA.



--

Doug Royer - (http://DougRoyer.US  http://goo.gl/yrxJTu )
DouglasRoyer(_at_)gmail(_dot_)com
714-989-6135

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