[UA-discuss] Implementing RFC 8398

Jalkanen Dina Solveig icann at thomascovenant.org
Tue Jun 19 13:01:38 UTC 2018


Hey Dmitry,

Implementing RFC 8398 support in OpenSSL is a good first move for the adoption of any TLS specification. Unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge, most major mail clients do not use OpenSSL.
For instance, Thunderbird uses NSS, Android's crypto services are underpinned by BoringSSL as of Android 6.0, and Microsoft Outlook uses Microsoft's own libraries.
As such, the actual impact of getting EAI X.509 certificates usable on the general internet via OpenSSL support is somewhat minimal.

That being said, providing a known good reference implementation has value, especially when combined with solid test cases and examples.
Looking further, since OpenSSL's projects BoringSSL and LibreSSL could directly benefit from this work, it's likely to be an excellent point to begin wider spread deployment and support of RFC 8398.

Given that just enabling IDNs and EAIs to work with email is one aspect of UA work, having PKI simply “just work” with common tools and frameworks is extremely important.
Would be happy to be of help. o/

BR,
Thomas

***
Thomas aka Jalkanen Dina Solveig
Friendly geek in Amsterdam Chaos
https://wiki.techinc.nl/index.php/User:Thomascovenant

On 19.06.2018 10:23, Dmitry Belyavsky wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Some time ago IETF has finalized RFC 8398 (Internationalized Email
> Addresses in X.509 Certificates). It describes using EAI in X.509
> certificates, validation rules of such certificates etc.
>
> There are a lot of standards where ASCII-only email is the only
> option, and new standards allowing the EAI are just appearing. The
> X.509 certificates and email in it is just one such a place. 
>
> I'm familiar with OpenSSL enough to implement the RFC 8398
> (Internationalized Email Addresses in X.509 Certificates) standard in
> OpenSSL code, if the UA community is interested enough in it.
>
> Thank you!
> -- 
> SY, Dmitry Belyavsky




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