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Ballot NS-001: Adopt Network and Certificate System Security Requirements

This email begins the discussion period for Ballot NS-001: Adopt Network and Certificate System Security Requirements.

PURPOSE OF BALLOT The purpose of this ballot is for the Networking Security Working Group to formally adopt version 1.7 of the Network and Certificate System Security Requirements as currently published by the CA/Browser Forum.

MOTION The following motion has been proposed by Clint Wilson of Apple and endorsed by Tim Hollebeek of DigiCert and Ben Wilson of Mozilla. -–Motion Begins-– In accordance with the Bylaws and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy of the CA/Browser Forum, version 1.7 of the Network and Certificate System Security Requirements are adopted in full. -–Motion Ends-– This ballot proposes a Final Guideline. The procedure for approval of this ballot is as follows: Discussion (7+ days) Start Time: January 31 2022 17:00 UTC

End Time: February 07 2022 17:00 UTC

Vote for approval (7 days) Start Time: February 08 2022 22:00 UTC

End Time: February 15 2022 22:00 UTC

Latest releases
Server Certificate Requirements
SC099: Improve Recording of Validation Methods - May 19, 2026

Code Signing Requirements
v3.8 - Aug 5, 2024

What’s Changed CSC-25: Import EV Guidelines to CS Baseline Requirements by @dzacharo in https://github.com/cabforum/code-signing/pull/38 Full Changelog: https://github.com/cabforum/code-signing/compare/v3.7...v3.8

S/MIME Requirements
v1.0.14 - Ballot SMC016 - May 5, 2026

This ballot maintains consistency between the S/MIME Baseline Requirements and the TLS Baseline Requirements with changes introduced by Ballots SC096 and SC097. Specifically, this ballot: Creates a carve-out of the logging requirements for DNSSEC specifically, stating these are not in scope. For audit purposes, change management logging is able to confirm if the appropriate controls are in effect or not. Sunsets all remaining use of SHA-1 signatures in Certificates and CRLs. It is noted that most uses of SHA-1 signatures are already deprecated by SC097. With this ballot, all unexpired Subordinate CA Certificates issuing S/MIME containing the SHA-1 signature algorithm must be revoked. This proposal does not prohibit the use of SHA-1 to generate issuerKeyHash or issuerNameHash values as currently required by RFC 5019. Includes minor formatting corrections.

Network and Certificate System Security Requirements
Version 2.0.5 (Ballot NS-008) - Jul 9, 2025

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The Certification Authority Browser Forum (CA/Browser Forum) is a voluntary gathering of Certificate Issuers and suppliers of Internet browser software and other applications that use certificates (Certificate Consumers).