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Re: Re: Residential CAs and DN subordination

1993-09-21 12:20:00
Bahreman>A DN is to uniquely identify the user.  It should not require the CA's 
name in the users' DN.
Just think about how the DN can be specified later?  Do you want to know or 
care what CA I registered with?
Actulally, I think having the CA name in the DN is a source of global 
incompatibility and non-uniqueness.

The CA name is required in the DN (name subordination) precisely to ensure 
global uniqueness. In
a sense, the CA becomes a naming authority, and is responsible for ensuring 
global uniqueness by
adding qualifiers as necessary. If the CA name is not included to identify the 
naming authority,
how would you propose to prevent the possible duplication of names?

I extended the principle to cover residential persons, just to eliminate any 
ambiguity as to who was 
responsible for identifying the user. Yes I do care which CA you registered 
with, particularly
if I want some assurance that you really are who you claim to be.

This is a well-established and pretty basic concept within PEM, although it is 
not required by
the basic X.500 distinguished name construct. Am I missing something in your 
questions?

Bob

P.S. I recently became aware of another potential problem. ANSI is not the only 
name registration
authority within C=US. The government has two other naming authorities, 
presumably one for
DOD and one for other, yet these naming authorities are only numbered, not 
specifically named.
I'm not worried about the government registering as GTE, or a commercial user 
registering
as the 114th Infantry Company, but Murphy's law will probably strike sooner or 
later.

In any case it would be nice to know whether an organization enjoys soverign 
immunity or not.

Maybe someone who has more familiarity with ANSI registration procedures could 
straighten me
out if I have an incorrect understanding of this.

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