Re: Avoid ASN.1 Re: XML versus ASN.1/DER blob

While I know I am on the heretical fringe here, I would like whatever we do
in this activity to allow for public key bindings to be conveyed in other
than X.509 certificates.  Before you start shooting, let me assure you that
I want to accomodate them, too.  But I personally find the ideas in the
SDSI/SPKI approach to be very attractive, and someday I'd like to see those
ideas implemented in an RDF syntax.

After all, as has been stated on this list, trust in a public key-based
signature is gained through attestation by a known, trusted party that said
key should be trusted for the purpose to which it is being used.  Since
there are many reasons one would want to trust a key other than identity
(like affiliation, for example), a set of RDF assertions signed by the 3rd
party can well convey the desired information.  But I am not proposing to
develop such a new "certificate" standard here.  I am proposing that we
recognize that ASN.1 is not at the core of this technology, and that
whatever we do accomodates a wide set of authentication means.

Alan
___________________________________________________________________________
Alan Kotok, Associate Chairman                          mailto:kotok@w3.org
World Wide Web Consortium                                 http://www.w3.org
MIT Laboratory for Computer Science,  545 Technology Square,  Room NE43-409
Cambridge, MA 02139, USA     Voice: +1-617-258-5728    Fax: +1-617-258-5999

Received on Thursday, 22 April 1999 13:46:08 UTC