Re: crypto-ISSUE-15: Discovering certificates associated with (private) keys [Web Cryptography API]

On Sun, Aug 5, 2012 at 9:24 PM, Web Cryptography Working Group Issue
Tracker <sysbot+tracker@w3.org> wrote:
> crypto-ISSUE-15: Discovering certificates associated with (private) keys [Web Cryptography API]
>
> http://www.w3.org/2012/webcrypto/track/issues/15
>
> Raised by: Ryan Sleevi
> On product: Web Cryptography API
>
> During the July Face-to-Face, one attribute that was desired to be associated with the Key object was if the user has any associated certificates for that key.
>
> For operations involving digital signatures, it's highly desirable to be able to produce both a signature and embed an associated certificate. See, for example, S-MIME.
>
> However, exposing certificates opens a host of implementation and privacy concerns:
> - Certificates associated with Keys may be transient (for example, backed on temporary storage). Should discovery be static (ie: as an attribute of the Key) or dynamic (ie: as a method on the Key)
> - What is the form that certificates should take? Does this API require specifying an X.509v3 API as well? ASN.1 -> WebIDL representation?
> - What are the privacy risks associated with exposing certificates to an application? Some pre-provisioned certificates may contain personally identifying information, and thus user consent may be desired before granting access to the certificate.
> - Additionally, if the application can construct (temporary/ephemeral) public keys, and then execute certificate discovery on those key, they might be able to discover sensitive information about the user, without requiring access to the key handle itself.
> - If key handles can be shared between origins (either at the application's discretion during key generation or based on some form of user assent/input), do certificates represent a way to smuggle information between origins, using application/x-x509-user-cert to deliver cert payloads?
>
>
>

Because of the complexities enumerated above, I would like to leave
Certificates OMITTED from the FPWD.

If someone feels particularly strong about certificates and exposing
them via the low-level API, it would be helpful if you could provide
both prose and a WebIDL description of certificates and their
relationship to the Key object.

Please consider use-cases and privacy concerns for pre-provisioned
keys - both in terms of application/user-agent specific keys and in
terms of generic pre-provisioned keys such as OS-backed keys - as well
as application-generated keys.

Additionally, consider alternative forms of key/cert bindings. For
example, a user may upload a public certificate as part of
registration, thus eliminating the need for certificate discovery.
Alternatively, the application might make use of Web Intents [1] to
discover a Cert-Selecting application that can allow a user to
centrally manage their certificates independent of the user-agent.

In light of these alternatives, I do not believe it's strictly
necessary to tie Certificate objects in with the FPWD draft.

[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/web-intents/

Received on Monday, 6 August 2012 04:32:29 UTC