[cabfpub] Policy Review Working Group Discussion on Terminology

[Ben Wilson]

During this morning's working group call (and as a continuation of what we
discussed at the last face-to-face meeting), we decided to update some of
the terminology used in the CA/Browser Forum's guideline documents.  The
purpose of this email is to see whether there is general consensus on the
Working Group's approach before we dive in and create redlined versions of
the documents, which would be created in the following order and presented
to the Forum by separate ballots. 

1.       Where the intent of the guidelines is to discuss the end entity
subscriber, as opposed to an intermediate CA subscriber, replace the word
"subscriber" with the phrase "end entity".  During this process, we may need
to consider how we use the term "Applicant" and "Subject."  For example,
when a certificate is issued, what does the "Applicant" become if not a
Subscriber?  

2.       Where the intent of the guidelines is to discuss the entity that
operates a certification authority, replace the word CA with the phrase
"certification service provider", CSP, or similar.  How do people feel about
that? The working group felt that the term "CA" should be reserved to refer
to the system that can issue certificates because the basic constraints
extension of its certificate contains "CA equals true".

3.       We also hope to standardize on usages of the terms "Intermediate
CA" vs. "Subordinate CA" (and possibly address other similar or related
concepts in the same ballot).

Thoughts?

Ben

 

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