Interfederation

[Tom Scavo <>]

On Tue, Feb 26, 2013 at 8:43 PM, Cantor, Scott 
<>
 wrote:
> On 2/26/13 5:22 PM, "Tom Scavo" 
> <>
>  wrote:
>>
>>Well, I can say this: the intended use and expectations of the current
>>feed are different than the intended use and expectations of the new
>>feed we've been discussing. I'm hoping that's obvious to folks.
>
> Yes, but I doubt we'll find 100% agreement about what the differences are.
> And it's worth doing some thinking, I think, about how to make as many
> assumptions as possible more explicit in any future aggregates so as to
> avoid implicitness in the future.

Agreed. For example, I'm guessing that this subcommittee will
recommend full support for MDRPI.

>>- The signing key is bound to an X.509 certificate, which confuses the
>>heck out of people.
>
> Yes, but that's what 30 year lifetimes are for.

Yes, but that's not quite what I meant. We're still using keys bound
to X.509 certificates rather than keys bound to some other structure
that better supports (conceptually) the trust model of the Federation.
JSON Web Keys (http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-jose-json-web-key-08)
is the first alternative that comes to mind.

>>- One or more *new* metadata signing keys may be in our future. The
>>current key is bound to a certificate that expires in one year.
>>Something has to be done about that.
>
> Issue a cert for 30 years with the same key. We've renewed the key
> certificate before, I believe. If so, we made a mistake by not making it
> long that time.
>
> Alternatively, explicitly and deliberately let it expire so that it's 100%
> clear the certificate isn't the point.

Yes, those are options. We need to figure this out rather soon, too. A
major campaign is required in any case.

>>- The current signing key is associated with a very tight production
>>pipeline, with very strong protections. (It is an offline signing
>>key.) We don't want to disrupt that secure pipeline.
>
> No argument from me (unless we want to move it online, which means
> changing the verification model).

I haven't been able to imagine any online scenario that makes sense.
Are you mentioning it for completeness or do you have some particular
idea in mind?

Thanks,
Tom