Peter Djalaliev:
> Ah, I see.  From what I can see in the RFC, this usage is not really
> forbidden, but not really standard either.  Generalizing my question,
> what kind of X509v3 extensions that NSS currently support?  I am aware
> that CA often use these extensions in less-than-standard ways :)


Well, the RFC requires the server to send any chained CA certificate up 
to the CA root. The server doesn't have to send the root CA certificate 
itself however.

In this case it's the browser (IE) which goes an extra-mile to fetch 
those missing CA certs if possible. If IE encounters in the AIA 
extension the "CA Issuers" field with a service URL, it fetches the 
certificate from there and if it's really the issuer of the server 
certificate builds the chain. Obviously this non-standard behavior had 
to the result that careless SysAdmins cared even less about correct 
installation of the certificates.

I'm not 100% sure, but to all of my knowledge NSS will support the same 
behavior soon as well or in theory has already the capability to do so 
(in PKIX). Nelson might know when this will be due...


-- 
Regards

Signer: Eddy Nigg, StartCom Ltd.
Jabber: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Blog:   https://blog.startcom.org
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