Ballot 217 – Sunset RFC 2527

The voting period for Ballot 217 has ended and the ballot has passed. Here are the results.

Voting by CAs – 15 votes total including abstentions

• 15 Yes votes: ANF Autoridad de Certificacion, Buypass, CFCA, Chunghwa Telecom, Cisco, DigiCert, Disig, Entrust Datacard, GDCA, GlobalSign, HARICA, SSL.com, TrustCor, Trustwave, TurkTrust

• 0 No votes:

• 0 Abstain:

100% of voting CAs voted in favor

Voting by browsers – 4 votes total including abstentions

• 4 Yes votes: Apple, Comodo Security Solutions, Google, Mozilla

• 0 No votes:

• 0 Abstain:

100% of voting browsers voted in favor

Under Bylaw 2.2(g), a ballot result will be considered valid only when more than half of the number of currently active Members has participated. Votes to abstain are counted in determining a quorum. Half of currently active Members as of the start of voting is 7, so quorum was 8 votes – quorum was met.

Bylaw 2.2(f) requires a yes vote by two-thirds of CA votes and 50%-plus-one browser votes for approval. Votes to abstain are not counted for this purpose. This requirement was met for both CAs and browsers.

At least one CA Member and one browser Member must vote in favor of a ballot for the ballot to be adopted. This requirement was met

The ballot passes.

Ballot 217: Sunset RFC 2527

Purpose of Ballot: The Baseline Requirements and Extended Validation Guidelines require that CA’s disclosures of the Certificate Policy and/or Certification Practice Statements include all of the material required by either RFC 2527 or RFC 3647 and structured in accordance with RFC 2527 or RFC 3647.

RFC 2527 is an obsolete RFC, published in 1999, and replaced by RFC 3647 in 2003. This sunsets the use of RFC 2527, ensuring that CAs’ disclosures will follow a consistent pattern across the industry, facilitating easier review by Subscribers, Browsers, and the broader community. Based upon Member feedback, 6 months is provided for CAs to review and update their CP/CPS documents.

This motion aligns the language to be consistent between the BRs and the EVGs. For the benefit of minimal changes, this aligns the existing language through duplication, rather than attempting to incorporate the BRs by reference.

The following motion has been proposed by Ryan Sleevi of Google and endorsed by Tim Hollebeek of DigiCert and Dimitris Zacharopoulos of HARICA.

Motion begins

This ballot modifies the “Baseline Requirements for the Issuance and Management of Publicly-Trusted Certificates” as follows, based upon Version 1.5.1:

In Section 2.2, replace the text:

“The CA SHALL publicly disclose its Certificate Policy and/or Certification Practice Statement through an appropriate and readily accessible online means that is available on a 24×7 basis. The CA SHALL publicly disclose its CA business practices to the extent required by the CA’s selected audit scheme (see Section 8.1). The disclosures MUST include all the material required by RFC 2527 or RFC 3647, and MUST be structured in accordance with either RFC 2527 or RFC 3647. “

with the following:

“The CA SHALL publicly disclose its Certificate Policy and/or Certification Practice Statement through an appropriate and readily accessible online means that is available on a 24×7 basis. The CA SHALL publicly disclose its CA business practices to the extent required by the CA’s selected audit scheme (see Section 8.1).

Effective as of 31 May 2018, the Certificate Policy and/or Certification Practice Statement MUST be structured in accordance with RFC 3647. Prior to 31 May 2018, the Certificate Policy and/or Certification Practice Statement MUST be structured in accordance with either RFC 2527 or RFC 3647. The Certificate Policy and/or Certification Practice Statement MUST include all material required by RFC 3647 or, if structured as such, RFC 2527.”

This ballot modifies the “Guidelines for the Issuance and Management of Extended Validation Certificates” as follows, based on Version 1.6.6:

In Section 8.2.2, replace the text:

“Each CA MUST publicly disclose their EV Policies through an appropriate and readily accessible online means that is available on a 24×7 basis. The CA is also REQUIRED to publicly disclose its CA business practices as required by WebTrust for CAs and ETSI TS 102 042 and ETSI EN 319 411-1. The disclosures MUST be structured in accordance with either RFC 2527 or RFC 3647.”

With the following:

“Each CA MUST publicly disclose its Certificate Policy and/or Certification Practice Statement through an appropriate and readily accessible online means that is available on a 24×7 basis. The CA SHALL publicly disclose its CA business practices to the extent required by the CA’s selected audit scheme (see Section 17.1).

Effective as of 31 May 2018, the CA’s Certificate Policy and/or Certification Practice Statement MUST be structured in accordance with RFC 3647. Prior to 31 May 2018, the CA’s Certificate Policy and/or Certification Practice Statement MUST be structured in accordance with either RFC 2527 or RFC 3647. The Certificate Policy and/or Certification Practice Statement MUST include all material required by RFC 3647 or, if structured as such, RFC 2527.”

Motion ends

The procedure for approval of this ballot is as follows:

Discussion (7 to 14 days)

Start Time: 2017-12-07 22:00:00 UTC

End Time: 2017-12-14 22:00:00 UTC

Vote for approval (7 days)

Start Time: 2017-12-14 22:00:00 UTC

End Time: 2017-12-21 22:00:00 UTC

Votes must be cast by posting an on-list reply to this thread on the Public list. A vote in favor of the motion must indicate a clear ‘yes’ in the response. A vote against must indicate a clear ‘no’ in the response. A vote to abstain must indicate a clear ‘abstain’ in the response. Unclear responses will not be counted. The latest vote received from any representative of a voting member before the close of the voting period will be counted. Voting members are listed here: /about/membership/members/

In order for the motion to be adopted, two thirds or more of the votes cast by members in the CA category and greater than 50% of the votes cast by members in the browser category must be in favor. Quorum is shown on CA/Browser Forum wiki. Under Bylaw 2.2(g), at least the required quorum number must participate in the ballot for the ballot to be valid, either by voting in favor, voting against, or abstaining.