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The IETF standards process and OpenPGP

The IETF standards process and OpenPGP. Jon Callas 8 October 1998. The IETF. Internet Engineering Task Force An International community of people concerned with the evolution of Internet Standards Made of Working Groups Each WG has a chartered scope Official work done on mailing lists

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The IETF standards process and OpenPGP

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  1. The IETF standards process and OpenPGP Jon Callas 8 October 1998

  2. The IETF • Internet Engineering Task Force • An International community of people concerned with the evolution of Internet Standards • Made of Working Groups • Each WG has a chartered scope • Official work done on mailing lists • Three meetings per year

  3. The IETF • Working groups in Areas • General, Internet, Applications, Operations and Management, Security, Routing, Transport, User Services • Each Area has an Area Director • ADs form the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG)

  4. The IETF • Areas are overseen by the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) • IAB and IESG are chartered by The Internet Society (ISOC) • ISOC is a non-profit professional society • Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) assigns constants, parameters, etc. • Internet Research Task Force (IRTF)

  5. The Tao of the IETF • The IETF is a controlled anarchy • There is no membership • If you are on a WG mailing list, or attend a meeting, or contribute in any way, you’re as close to a member as there is. • IETF contributions come from people, not corporations

  6. BOFs • Birds of a Feather Sessions • Essentially proto-working groups • Can meet only twice, and then never again • Closely related concept -- The Bar BOF

  7. RFC • Request For Comments • Essentially IETF standards • Many are pseudo-standards • Pseudo-standards are nonetheless important • Drafts of RFCs are called Internet Drafts • Have a life of 6 months • RFC 2223, Instructions to Authors, tells how to write an RFC

  8. RFC • Informational • Anyone can create one, no review required • IETF pseudo-standards • Many are reprints of other documents • Tradition of April Fools RFCs • Many of these are only half jokes

  9. RFC • Standards Track • Created by Working Groups • Detailed Process for Approval • Proposed Standard, Draft Standard, Standard • Standards get an STD number, which is a handle

  10. RFC • FYI • Have their own FYI numbers, like STDs • Best Practices • Experimental

  11. Other considerations • Intellectual Property Considerations • Patented technologies are forbidden from being MUSTs unless there is an alternative • Munich doctrine as applied to crypto • Patents have caused much havoc in the Security area

  12. Writing an RFC • Read RFC2223, 2119, STD1 • Arcane format • I use Tim Dierk’s Perl program to format • Find a working group to support you, or go informational • Or start your own WG

  13. OpenPGP • Standards Track Working Group • Has two main goals • OpenPGP formats -- PGP message and certificate formats • OpenPGP/MIME -- MIME security encoding of multipart messages

  14. OpenPGP • OpenPGP formats • Replaces informational RFC1991 • In IETF last call for Proposed Standard • OpenPGP/MIME • Finishing up replacement for RFC2015

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