Subject: Protocol Action: An Internet Attribute Certificate Profile for Authorization to Proposed Standard

From: The IESG <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2001 10:25:20 -0400

The IESG has approved An Internet Attribute Certificate Profile for
Authorization <draft-ietf-pkix-ac509prof-09.txt> as a Proposed
Standard.  This document is the product of the Public-Key
Infrastructure (X.509) Working Group.  The IESG contact persons are
Jeffrey Schiller and Marcus Leech.

Technical Summary
 
This document provides a profile for X.509 Attribute Certificates.
Traditionally when we think of X.509 Certificates we envision a
certificate that associate a public key with a name. However attribute
certificates associate a name, not with a public key, but with a set of
attributes.  Attributes might be used for authorization and generic
business purposes.  Whereas a binding between a key and a name (which is
provided for in a "normal" certificate) may last for a long time,
attributes may be associated with a name for a short (or long) time. A
person may also have several different attribute certificates, each for
an appropriate process or situation.

Working Group Summary

The working group came to consensus on this document.

Protocol Quality

These documents were reviewed by Jeffrey I. Schiller for the IESG.