Ballot FORUM-11: Creation of S/MIME Certificates Working Group
Vote Results
The voting period for Ballot FORUM-11 has ended and the Ballot has Failed. Here are the results:
Voting by Certificate Issuers – 4 votes total including abstentions
Three CAs voted in favor: DigiCert, Actalis, OISTE
One CA Abstained: Trustcor
Voting by Certificate Consumers – 4 votes total including abstentions
Three Browsers voted against: Apple, Google, Microsoft
One Browser abstained: Mozilla
Therefore, the ballot fails.
Ballot Text
The following ballot is proposed by Tim Hollebeek of DigiCert and endorsed by Wayne Thayer of Mozilla and Adriano Santoni of Actalis.
Ballot Forum-11: Creation of S/MIME Certificates Working Group
Purpose of the Ballot
The CA/Browser Forum recently underwent a two-year long governance reform exercise, modifying the Bylaws to allow the creation of working groups that covered topics other than server certificates. While originally motivated by the inability to maintain requirements for code signing certificates, it was anticipated from the start that this would also provide an opportunity to create other working groups that could develop and maintain certificate profiles and requirements for other kinds of certificates. While a number of regional and technical standards exist regarding the creation and issuance of S/MIME certificates, there is no current global forum for certificate authorities and those who consume or use S/MIME certificates to come together and develop and maintain policies and standards for those certificates. This lack of standards has impeded the adoption and interoperability of S/MIME certificate worldwide. This ballot would establish a working group chartered to develop and maintain such standards for S/MIME certificates, including but not limited to two important priorities: a uniform certificate profile for the issuance of publicly-trusted S/MIME certificates, and validation requirements for such certificates.
- MOTION BEGINS –
Establish S/MIME Certificates Working Group
Upon approval of the CAB Forum by ballot in accordance with section 5.3 of the Bylaws, the S/MIME Certificates Working Group (“SMWG”) is created to perform the activities as specified in the attached Charter.