path: root/lib/ssl/doc/src/remember.xml

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<chapter>
  <header>
    <copyright>
      <year>2003</year><year>2009</year>
      <holder>Ericsson AB. All Rights Reserved.</holder>
    </copyright>
    <legalnotice>
      The contents of this file are subject to the Erlang Public License,
      Version 1.1, (the "License"); you may not use this file except in
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    <title>PKIX Certificates</title>
    <prepared>UAB/F/P Peter H&ouml;gfeldt</prepared>
    <docno></docno>
    <date>2003-06-09</date>
    <rev>A</rev>
    <file>pkix_certs.sgml</file>
  </header>

  <section>
    <title>Introduction to Certificates</title>
    <p><em>Outline:</em></p>
    <list type="bulleted">
      <item>SSL/TLS protocol - server must have certificate - -what
       the the server sends to the client - client may verify the
       server - server may ask client for certificate - what the
       client sends to the server - server may then verify the client
       - verification - certificate chains - root certificates -
       public keys - key agreement - purpose of certificate  - main
       contents of certificate - contents have increased as time went
       by - common file formats for certificates.
      </item>
      <item>private keys - password protection - key generation - file
       formats.
      </item>
      <item>ssl_pkix and alternate decodings.
      </item>
      <item>Attribute Certificates (not used by SSL).
      </item>
      <item>Certificate requests - certificate authorities - signing of
       certificates - certificate revocation lists. 
      </item>
      <item>standards: ASN.1, X.509, X.520, PKIX, PKCS, PEM.
      </item>
      <item>incompatibilities between standards (X.509-1997 vs old) - the
       ASN.1 problem of ANY, BIT STRING and OCTET STRING - the module
       ssl_pkix.
      </item>
      <item>test suites: NIST
      </item>
      <item>Warnings: *creation* of trusted certificate (OpenSSL).
      </item>
      <item>Erlang SSL and certificates
      </item>
      <item>The need for seeding the random generator. See also John
       S. Denker: High-Entropy Symbol Generator
       (http://www.monmouth.com/~jsd). 
      </item>
      <item>links to standards and documents. Books (Rescorla).
      </item>
      <item>ASN.1 crash course.
      </item>
      <item>Nagel algorithm.
      </item>
    </list>
    <p>For an introduction to ASN.1 see <url href="http://asn1.elibel.tm.fr/">ASN.1 Information Site</url>.
      </p>
  </section>
</chapter>