Subject: tagged CHOICEs in CRMF ASN.1

From: James Nicolson <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 08 Dec 1998 11:46:14 -0800

Several  places in the CRMF ASN.1 have tagged CHOICEs: Names in
CertTemplate, Times in OptionalValidity, POPOPrivKey in
ProofOfPossession, GeneralName in POPOSigningKeyInput, EncryptedKey in
PKIArchiveOptions.  Although the CRMF definition indicates a default of
IMPLICIT tagging,  ASN.1 dictates that a CHOICE is always EXPLICITly
tagged regardless of the default.  In order to remove a source of
possible confusion, could these tags be labeled EXPLICIT, even though
technically it is redundant?

--
**************** My views are mine, not Netscape's *****************
James Nicolson                             Member of Technical Staff
[email-masked]          Certificate Server and Security Tools

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From: Carlisle Adams <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1998 13:30:00 -0500

Hi James,

While I'm as keen as anyone to remove sources of possible confusion, I
suspect that your request has come too late to be acted upon at this
time (CRMF has already been approved by the IESG and is simply awaiting
publication by the RFC editor, which should happen any day now).

On the bright side, however, it is quite possible that your request will
itself serve the purpose (at least for the current generation of
implementers) since it reminds everyone to be careful here.  Thank you!

Carlisle.