[Technical Errata Reported] RFC5280 (7164)

RFC Errata System <[email protected]> Fri, 14 Oct 2022 12:39:34 -0700 (PDT)
Newsgroups gmane.ietf.x509
Message-ID <[email protected]>
The following errata report has been submitted for RFC5280,
"Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure Certificate and Certificate Revocation List (CRL) Profile".

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You may review the report below and at:
https://www.rfc-editor.org/errata/eid7164

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Type: Technical
Reported by: Aaron Gable <[email protected]>

Section: 5.2.5

Original Text
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   If the distributionPoint field is absent, the CRL MUST contain
   entries for all revoked unexpired certificates issued by the CRL
   issuer, if any, within the scope of the CRL.

Corrected Text
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   If the distributionPoint field is absent, the CRL MUST contain
   entries for all revoked unexpired certificates issued by the CRL
   issuer.

Notes
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The removed phrase does not appear in the original text that this requirement is derived from, ITU-T Rec. X.509 (08/2005) Section 8.6.2.2: "If the issuing distribution point field, the AA issuing distribution point field, and the CRL scope field are all absent, the CRL shall contain entries for all revoked unexpired public-key certificates issued by the CRL issuer."

The removed phrase does not serve to create a stricter requirement; rather it creates a looser requirement which allows a CRL which does contain entries for all revoked unexpired certificates *within its scope* to not include the distributionPoint field. Given that the distributionPoint field serves an important security purpose in preventing substitution attacks, it is unlikely that this loosening was the intent of the original authors.

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RFC5280 (draft-ietf-pkix-rfc3280bis-11)
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Title               : Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure Certificate and Certificate Revocation List (CRL) Profile
Publication Date    : May 2008
Author(s)           : D. Cooper, S. Santesson, S. Farrell, S. Boeyen, R. Housley, W. Polk
Category            : PROPOSED STANDARD
Source              : Public-Key Infrastructure (X.509)
Area                : Security
Stream              : IETF
Verifying Party     : IESG