Dear CAs, Relying Parties, Users, and all others interested,
In this announcement of the EUGridPMA:
1. International Grid Trust Federation to introduce new authorities 2. New distribution (1.0) with new layout and authorities Summary of changes Notice on directory structure RPM distribution and meta-packages Info meta-data for authorities Obsoleting of the EUGridPMA meta-package by the IGTF policy RPM GPG signing
We hope that you find this update useful and welcome any comments you may have. Also, feel free to redistribute this information widely as you see appropriate.
Regards, David Groep
For more information about this newsletter and the mailing list, please refer to the EUGridPMA web site at https://www.eugridpma.org/
https://www.eugridpma.org/newsletter/eugridpma-newsletter-20051025.txt
========================================================================= 1. International Grid Trust Federation to introduce new authorities =========================================================================
With the foundation of the International Grid Trust Federation (IGTF) on October 5th, the authentication profile (minimum requirements) guidelines on X.509 CAs with secured infrastructure has been accepted as the basis for accrediting "classic" authorities by all three PMAs: not only the EUGridPMA, but also the APGridPMA (for the Asia Pacific region) and the TAGPMA (covering the Americas). In the AP region, four authorities have been accredited according to this profile, following an in-depth review and an on-site audit. This includes the two authorities (IHEP in Beijing and ASGCC in Taipei) that were already previously accredited by the EUGridPMA. The APGridPMA also brings in two new CAs: KISTI (South Korea) and AIST (Japan).
The EUGridPMA will from now on distribute the entire corpus of IGTF accredited CAs, regardless of their accrediting PMA (as announced in the October 6th newsletter. Today, this includes the "classic" profile only, but in the near future also the new profile covering short-lived credential services ("slcs"). If you have previously accepted the assurance level for classic CAs from the EUGridPMA, we suggest you place equal trust in the IGTF "classic" profile. You should make a new trust assessment with respect to the SLCS profile, once this profile has been accepted by its maintaining body, the TAGPMA. This advice is reflected in the upgrade path for the EUGridPMA distribution format, as explained below.
For more information regarding the IGTF, please refer to the IGTF or EUGridPMA web site at:
========================================================================= 2. New distribution (1.0) with new layout and formats =========================================================================
A new distribution of Accredited Authorities by the EUGridPMA, based on the IGTF Common Source, is now available. As several major changes have been introduced in this release, and because of the use of a common distribution format throughout the IGTF, the version number has been bumped to 1.0. Future releases will sequentially increment this number (1.1, 1.2 ... 1.9, 1.10, 1.11, ... 1.1201, etc.)
This is version 1.0, release 1, and it is now available for download from the EUGridPMA repository at
https://www.eugridpma.org/distribution/igtf/1.0/ or https://www.eugridpma.org/distribution/igtf/current/
You can download the new packages and install them at your convenience.
Summary of changes ------------------
Changes from 0.32 to 1.0 ------------------------- (25 October 2005)
* IGTF policy meta-packages replace EUGridPMA-only ones. The legacy "ca_policy_eugridpma" RPMs now depend on their IGTF counterparts. The EUGridPMA specific files will be withdrawn in a future release. * New directory structure moves all data regarding accredited authorities to the singe "accredited/" directory (including the policy meta-RPM) * Tar-ball installation now supports multiple profiles and targets * Meta-data (".info") for each CA added, and installed in trusted directory * The "experimental" profile supersedes the "others/"areainthe distribution (note: this affects the FNAL_KCA, which may shortly be added as an accredited authority under a new Short-Lived Credential Services profile) * Discontinued authorities are no longer distributed * APGridPMA accreditations added: KISTI and AIST * New EUGridPMA accreditations: TR-Grid and BalticGrid * CRL URL for SiGNET changed to http instead of https * Added compatibility namespace forNIIF "/C=HU/O=NIIF CA/OU=NIIF/OU=GRID/*"
Notice on directory structure ----------------------------- *** *ONLY* CAs IN THE "accredited/" DIRECTORY and THE CAs INSTALLED USING THE ca_policy_igtf-classic-1.0-1.noarch.rpm ARE ACCREDITED
Do *not* install certificates from the "worthless/" or "experimental/", directories, except if you your self review and accept their policy and practice statement. The EUGridPMA provides these certificates in this format for your convenience only, and to allow graceful changeover for legacy installations.
*** The Fermilab Kerberized CA, although not an accredited CA according to the "classic" profile, has been available from the EUGridPMA repository before in the "others/" directory. Due to the reorganization, this authority has moved to the "experimental/" area. When an authentication profile (SLCS) suitable for the KCA has been accepted by the TAGPMA, the location of this authority will be reconsidered.
*** All individual CAs packages, as well as the bundles, have the same (common) version number "1.0" and release "1".
RPM distribution and meta-packages ---------------------------------- For those using RPM based Linux distribution, a "meta-RPM" is available from the repository, ca_policy_igtf-classic-1.0-1.noarch.rpm, that contains dependencies on the RPMs of all accredited CAs. The repository is suitable for "yum" based automatic updates, by adding to the yum.conf file:
[eugridpma] name=EUGridPMA baseurl=http://www.eugridpma.org/distribution/igtf/current/ gpgcheck=1
Also "apt" is supported. See http://www.eugridpma.org/distribution/igtf/current/apt/README.txt for details.
Info meta-data for authorities ------------------------------ The RPM packages (and the files installed via the accredited tar bundle) now also include a ".info" file for each installed root certificate. This info file contains important meta-data regarding the CA, in a plain- text "attribute=value" format. At a minimum, this file will contain:
alias preferred short name of the CA status accreditation profile name (or "worthless/experimental") email contact address of the CA for incidents sha1fp SHA1 fingerprint of the certificate version version number of the package that contains this CA
The file may contains comments (i.e. lines starting with "#"). For an example, unpack the igtf-accredited bundle from the accredited/ directory: igtf-policy-accredited-bundle-1.0.tar.gz and look at, e.g., "igtf-policy-accredited-bundle-1.0/16da7552.info"
Obsoleting of the EUGridPMA meta-package by the IGTF policy ----------------------------------------------------------- In previous releases, a similar meta-package for bulk installations, called "ca_policy_eugridpma-classic-<ver>-<rel>" has been provided. Following our recommendation to extend your trust to all IGTF accredited "classic" authorities, you are requested now to install "ca_policy_igtf-classic-1.0-1" and un-install the obsolete eugridpma-only meta-package. There will no longer be a meta-package with only EUGridPMA accredited CAs.
For compatibility purposes, the ca_policy_eugridpma-classic package is still provided with release 1.0, but has a single dependency on the entire ca_policy_igtf-classic bundle. If you do automatic updating using this meta-package, you will *automatically* add all IGTF accredited "classic" authorities to your list of trusted authorities.
For release 1.0, this means that KISTI and AIST will be added. We are sure this matches the expectations of our relying parties, and it implements the EUGridPMA and IGTF recommendations on compatible assurance levels between the PMAs. For policy-related issues, please refer to the IGTF Federation Document for details.
Similar considerations hold for the tar-based installation using the "configure && make && make install" mechanism. This accredited bundle (which supports all authentication profiles using the "--with-profile=" mechanism) also contains all IGTF accredited CAs.
RPM GPG signing --------------- Also this new RPM distribution is distributed with GPG-signed RPMs. The key (ID 3CDBBC71) has been uploaded to the public key servers, along with my signature as the EUGridPMA Chair (keyID 6F298418). The key is also contained in the repository. You will need this key if you enable GPG checking for automatic updates in "yum" or "apt".
Please remember to validate this distribution against the TACAR trusted repository (https://www.tacar.org/) where-ever possible.
========================================================================= Next Release =========================================================================
The next release of the CA RPMs is to be expected around November 2005, (of course barring special circumstances). If you have suggestions or improvements for the distribution format, to have it better suit your needs, please contact the PMA at info@eugridpma.org. There will be a common distribution format across the entire IGTF (i.e. all three PMAs).