Architecture for Public-Key Infrastructure (APKI)

APKI is a specification for a Public Key Infrastructure, created by the The Open Group. It describes the architecture, the requirements and the components of a PKI. Also, it gives recommendations for implementors on the use of protocols and other specifications. This specification is available in HTML and PDF format and one can download it by registering freely on the WWW site. A hard copy is also available.

In a nutshell, this specification gives a high-level overview of the components of a PKI and recommends other protocols and specifications that should be used in order to get a standard-based functionality. Summing up, it recommends the use of

• The PKIX standards, covered in Chapter 6.

• The CDSA 2.0 Common Data Security Architecture, covered in the section called Common Data Security Architecture (CDSA) in Chapter 9.

• The XDAS Distributed Audit Service, covered in the section called Distributed Audit Service (XDAS) in Chapter 9.

• The GSS-API Generic Security API and its extensions (XGSS-API), covered in the section called Generic Security Service API (GSS-API) in Chapter 9.

• The LDAP Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, covered in the section called Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) in Chapter 9.

• The IETF S/MIME Cryptographic Message Syntax (CMS), version 3, covered in the section called S/MIME CMS [TODO] in Chapter 9.

• The IETF (RFC2030) Simple Network Time Protocol (SNTP), covered in the section called Simple Network Time Protocol (SNTP) in Chapter 9.