-----BEGIN PRIVACY-ENHANCED MESSAGE-----
Proc-Type: 4,MIC-CLEAR
Content-Domain: RFC822
Originator-Certificate: MIICqjCCAhMCARAwDQYJKoZIhvcNAQECBQAwgYYxC
zAJBgNVBAYTAlVTMSswKQYDVQQKEyJEZWZlbnNlIEluZm9ybWF0aW9uIFN5c3Rlb
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Issuer-Certificate: MIICNTCCAZ4CARswDQYJKoZIhvcNAQECBQAwRDELMAkGA
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Issuer-Certificate: MIIB8jCCAVsCAQEwDQYJKoZIhvcNAQECBQAwRDELMAkGA
1UEBhMCVVMxCzAJBgNVBAgTAk1EMSgwJgYDVQQKEx9UcnVzdGVkIEluZm9ybWF0a
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dm1QEHGIfKgBwFidItnOa74DfkXdijlPRnr/+E2Ib6PM+hEfQ==
MIC-Info: RSA-MD5,RSA,qWH7vG4IZRM6a1XHz+Vb92VKqh16yfEvsYkRO7l4NcY
ellQYtvmT23U2cZrAt5GpV2Ay9vVXfBhgcWjVqBN6FV2RjAwmzc9sUxf4Nc1+2lr
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=
PEM Users:
I've been using PEM now for quite some time. In fact, our ASSIST
(Automated Systems Security Incident Support Team) uses PEM to
digitally sign all of its advisories that it sends out by e-mail.
I've been quite happy with PEM and its capabilities, and I think that
it's a great service to the Internet community. I do have one
specific comment to make, however, that I thought would be of interest
to other PEM users as well as developers.
In sending out our PEM-signed advisories, we frequently encounter
people that have never seen or heard of PEM before. Although our
advisories include a short blurb on what PEM is (example attached
below), the PEM header information (all of our advisories include our
full PEM certificates) often confuses the readers. We get a large
number of messages back that say things like, "The e-mail that you
sent me was garbled - please re-transmit", or, "What the heck is this
stuff?!"... :-) Of course, all of us PEM "insiders" know what that
information is, and can quickly process our PEM mail. Ah, I should
also point out that many of our readers don't have PEM, so we send our
advisories out MIC-CLEAR so that any recipient can still read the
text.
Have other PEM users experienced this sort of confusion from your
message recipients? It would seem to me that it would make things
easier on the end-reader to put all of the certificate information at
the bottom of a PEM envelope rather than at the top. That way, a
MIC-CLEAR message would be obviously seen as plain text by the reader,
without having to sort through the certificates. And, the PEM reader
could still get to the same information for itself. I realize that
this is a pretty drastic change that I'm suggesting, but I think that
it would do a lot in catalyzing user acceptance of PEM.
Just my thoughts on PEM, for what they're worth...
Regards,
Ken
Kenneth R. van Wyk
Chief, Operations Division
Automated System Security Incident Support Team (ASSIST)
Center for Information Systems Security (CISS)
Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA)
Moderator, VIRUS-L/comp.virus
krvw(_at_)ASSIST(_dot_)IMS(_dot_)DISA(_dot_)MIL
ASSIST Hotline: +1 703 756 7974
ASSIST e-mail: assist(_at_)assist(_dot_)ims(_dot_)disa(_dot_)mil
=====
Appendix: (PEM blurb that we use in our advisories)
Privacy Enhanced Mail (PEM): ASSIST uses PEM, a public key
encryption tool, to digitally sign all bulletins that are
distributed through e-mail. The section of seemingly random
characters between the "BEGIN PRIVACY-ENHANCED MESSAGE" and "BEGIN
ASSIST BULLETIN" contains machine-readable digital signature
information generated by PEM, not corrupted data. PEM software for
UNIX systems is available from Trusted Information Systems (TIS) at
no cost, and can be obtained via anonymous FTP from ftp.tis.com
(IP 192.94.214.100). Note: The TIS software is just one of several
implementations of PEM currently available and additional versions
are likely to be offered from other sources in the near future.
-----END PRIVACY-ENHANCED MESSAGE-----