S/MIME Version 2 Certificate Handling
S. Dusse, Paul E. Hoffman, B. Ramsdell, Jeremy M. Weinstein · 1998
Overview S/MIME (Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions), described in [SMIME-MSG], provides a method to send and receive secure MIME messages.In order to validate the keys of a message sent to it, an S/MIME agent needs to certify that the key is valid.This memo describes the mechanisms S/MIME uses to create and validate keys using certificates.This specification is compatible with PKCS #7 in that it uses the data types defined by PKCS #7.It also inherits all the varieties of architectures for certificate-based key management supported by PKCS #7.Note that the method S/MIME messages make certificate requests is defined in [SMIME-MSG].In order to handle S/MIME certificates, an agent has to follow specifications in this memo, as well as some of the specifications listed in the following documents:-"PKCS #1: RSA Encryption", [PKCS-1].