Profiles and protocols for the Internet Public-Key Infrastructure

The purpose of the paper is to discuss the ongoing standardization activities within the Internet community with respect to public key infrastructures based on the X.509 authentication framework. In particular, this paper describes the status of the Internet Public Key Infrastructure which is being addressed within the IETF PKIX working group. This paper introduces the concept of a PKI in general and specifically discusses the purpose and status of the following PKIX work areas: X.509 certificate and CRL profile; operational protocols; certificate management protocols; certificate policy and certification practices framework; time stamp protocols; and notrary protocols.