[Cscwg-public] Question about "Certificates transported outside of a Signing Service"

[Corey Bonnell]

Hello,

I'm currently working through the CSBRs and moving the content into RFC 3647
format and I encountered a requirement that is unclear. Section 10.2.4
(Subscriber Private key) states:

 

"For Certificates transported outside of a Signing Service's secure
infrastructure, the CA or Signing 

Service MUST require, by contract, each Subscriber to generate their own
Private Key and protect 

the Private Key in accordance with Section 16.2 ("Private Key Protection")."

 

Certificates are bundled with signed binaries, so they by necessity will be
"transported outside a Signing Service's secure infrastructure". So I
believe this requirement, as written, doesn't make a lot of sense. It may be
speaking to Private keys instead of Certificates, which may make more sense,
but still isn't clear. If the Subscriber is required to generate a key pair
after migrating their private key out of a Signing Service, they won't be
able to use their current Certificate for future signing operations (since
they key pair will have changed). The net result of this reading is that key
export from a Signing Service would not be allowed.

 

It appears this language has been around for some time (it exists as-is in
v1.2). Does anyone have any insight into what this requirement is attempting
to convey?

 

Thanks,

Corey

 

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