Policy Proposal: Documentation of the X.509 Authentication Method

[Member Services]

ARIN received the following policy proposal. In accordance with the ARIN
Internet Resource Policy Evaluation Process, the proposal is being
posted to the ARIN Public Policy Mailing List (PPML) and being placed on
ARIN's website.

The ARIN Advisory Council (AC) will review this proposal and may decide to:

1. Accept the proposal as a formal policy proposal as it is presented;
2. Work with the author to:
     a) clarify the language or intent of the proposal;
     b) divide the proposal into two (2) or more proposals; or
     c) combine the proposal with other proposals; or, 3. Not accept the
proposal as a formal policy proposal.

This proposal was received within 10 days of the next scheduled meeting
of the ARIN Advisory Council; the review period may be extended to the
regularly scheduled meeting that occurs after the upcoming meeting.

If the AC accepts the proposal or reaches an agreement with the author,
then the proposal will be posted as a formal policy proposal to PPML and
it will be presented at a Public Policy Meeting. If the AC does not
accept the proposal or can not reach an agreement with the author, then
the AC will notify the community of their decision with an explanation;
at that time the author may elect to use the petition process to advance
their proposal. If the author elects not to petition or the petition
fails, then the proposal will be considered closed.

The ARIN Internet Resource Policy Evaluation Process can be found at:
http://www.arin.net/policy/irpep.html

Mailing list subscription information can be found at:
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Regards,

Member Services
American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)


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Policy Proposal Name: Documentation of the X.509 Authentication Method

Authors:
Paul Vixie
Mark Kosters
Chris Morrow
Jared Mauch
Bill Woodcock

Proposal Version: 1

Submission Date: Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Proposal type: New

Policy term: Permanent

Policy statement:

       DELETION FROM THE NRPM

          3.5.3 X.509
                This section intentionally left blank.

       ADDITION TO THE NRPM

          3.5.3 X.509
                ARIN accepts X.509-signed transactions as authentic
                communication from authorized Points of Contact. POCs
                may denote their records "crypt-auth," subsequent to
                which unsigned communications shall not be deemed
                authentic with regard to those records.

Rationale:

       This policy complements the previously-proposed "Reinstatement of
       PGP Authentication Method" which introduces section 3.5 to the
       NRPM. Section 3.5 relates the existence of three authentication
       methods. Two of those, mail-from and X.509, were preexisting but
       not documented within the NRPM.

       This policy proposal simply seeks to provide brief documentation
       of the existence of the X.509 authentication method. Because the
       specific wording of the documentation may be subject to debate,
       and is in no way interdependent upon the documentation of the
       other two methods, it is being proposed in a separate policy, so
       that consensus may be more easily reached.

Timetable for implementation: Immediate