Ballot FORUM-8: Charter to Establish a Code Signing Certificate Working Group



Purpose of Ballot



It is proposed that the Forum establish a working group to adopt and maintain a 
policy, framework, and set of standards related to the issuance and management 
of code signing certificates by a third-party Certificate Issuer, rather than 
by the platform supplier (i.e. Certificate Consumer) itself. The work would be 
based on the Forum's prior adoption of the EV Code Signing Guidelines, version 
1.4, (Ballot 172; 5 July 2016), and additional work by Forum members who 
expressly agreed to operate pursuant to the Forum's IPR Policy, between 2013 
and 2015, which resulted in a failed proposal to adopt a set of baseline 
requirements for the issuance and management of code signing certificates 
(https://cabforum.org/wp-content/uploads/Code-Signing-Requirements-2015-11-19.pdf;
 https://cabforum.org/2015/12/17/ballot-158).



It is proposed by Ben Wilson of DigiCert and endorsed by Mike Reilly of 
Microsoft and Bruce Morton of Entrust Datacard that the Forum charter a working 
group to operate in accordance with the Scope and other provisions that follow. 
 This Charter will take effect upon approval of the CAB Forum by ballot 
conducted in accordance with Bylaw 5.3.



- BALLOT BEGINS -



Code Signing Certificate Working Group Charter



Introduction



This introduction provides general information and context with an intent to 
assist the interpretation of this Charter.



A code signing certificate contains the public key corresponding to a private 
key that is used by a person or organization to digitally sign data-such data 
usually containing instructions (i.e. "code") for hardware to perform certain 
tasks. A code signing certificate can be identified by the existence of an 
Extended Key Usage (EKU) Object Identifier (OID) of 1.3.6.1.5.5.7.3.3.



The objective of a code signing certificate is to provide a cryptographic way 
to identify the source of code. There are a variety of functional models and 
use cases whereby a code signing certificate is issued by a Certificate Issuer 
to a Subscriber for use in signing code that will run on a particular computing 
platform or group of platforms. (Each platform supplier determines how a chain 
between a trusted root CA certificate and the code signing certificate will be 
created and verified.)



The primary use case under consideration for the working group is a model 
whereby the platform supplier accepts code signing certificates issued by a 
third-party Certificate Issuer. A common example of this model is Microsoft's 
Authenticode, although others exist.



Other functional models include those which allow developers to self-sign code 
and those in which the platform supplier manages the code signing or 
certificate issuance process, and these models are expressly excluded from the 
working group's mandate. Common examples of these models that are expressly 
excluded from the scope of guidelines to be promulgated by the working group 
are Apple's Developer ID program and Google's Android.



Chartering of the Code Signing Certificate Working Group



A Chartered Working Group ("CWG") is created to perform the activities as 
specified in this Charter, subject to the terms and conditions of the 
CA/Browser Forum Bylaws and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy, as such 
documents may change from time to time. This charter for the Code Signing 
Certificate Working Group has been created according to CAB Forum Bylaw 5.3.1. 
In the event of a conflict between this Charter and any provision in either the 
Bylaws or the IPR Policy, the provision in the Bylaws or IPR Policy SHALL take 
precedence. The definitions found in the Forum's Bylaws SHALL apply to 
capitalized terms in this Charter.



1.      Scope



The authorized scope of the CWG SHALL be to discuss, adopt, and maintain 
policies, frameworks, and sets of standards related to the issuance and 
management of code signing certificates by third-party Certificate Issuers 
under a publicly trusted root (and not code signing certificates issued under a 
private root CA), limited as follows:



a.      EV Code Signing Guidelines, v. 1.4 and subsequent versions
b.      Version 1.0 Draft of November 19, 2015, Baseline Requirements for the 
Issuance and Management of Publicly-Trusted Code Signing Certificates (subject 
to the CWG making a written finding that the provenance of such document is 
sufficiently covered by the Forum's IPR Policy)
c.      Verification requirements for issuance/renewal of code signing 
certificates
d.      Subscriber protection of private keys, including keys stored in the 
cloud
e.      Certificate issuance and revocation
f.      Requirements/controls on use of code signing certificates
g.      Mechanisms to engage with AV vendors, researchers, and others regarding 
signed malware
h.      Certificate profiles for code signing certificates and Issuing CA 
certificates (including the appropriateness of extensions and when those 
extensions should be present)
i.      Certificate issuance and revocation
j.      CA operational practices, physical/logical security, etc.



The CWG SHALL exercise caution to ensure that its work product does not impede 
the issuance of other EKU types.



2.      Out of Scope



The CWG SHALL NOT develop guidelines, standards, or requirements applicable to:



a.      Self-signed code;



b.      Platform suppliers / Certificate Consumers;



c.      Certificates issued under a root certificate that is not publicly 
trusted, even though they are managed by Certificate Issuers or other 
third-party service providers; or



d.      The code signing or certificate issuance process when managed by a 
platform supplier / Certificate Consumer.







3.      Charter Expiration



The CWG is chartered until it is dissolved as specified in Bylaw 5.3.2(c).



4.      Personnel and Participation



a.      Selection of Officers

Dean Coclin will act as chair of the CWG until the first Working Group 
Teleconference, at which time the group will select a chair and vice-chair. The 
chair and vice-chair will serve until October 31, 2020, or until they are 
replaced, resign, or are otherwise disqualified. Thereafter, elections SHALL be 
held for chair and vice chair every two years in coordination with the Forum's 
election process and in conjunction with its election cycle. Voting SHALL occur 
in accordance with Bylaw 4.1(c).



b.      Eligibility to Participate, Suspension, and Termination of Membership 
in CWG

The CWG SHALL consist of two classes of voting members, Certificate Issuers and 
Certificate Consumers meeting the eligibility criteria below:



1.      A Certificate Issuer eligible for voting membership in the CWG must 
have a current WebTrust for CAs or ETSI EN 319 411-1/EN 319 411-2 audit report 
prepared by a properly-qualified auditor and actively issue code signing 
certificates that are accepted for use in computing platforms in which the 
platform supplier accepts code signing certificates issued by such Certificate 
Issuer.



2.      A Certificate Consumer (i.e. a platform supplier) eligible for voting 
membership in the CWG must produce a computing platform that accepts code 
signing certificates issued by third-party Certificate Issuers who meet 
criteria set by such Certificate Consumer.



Forum Members seeking to participate in the CWG MUST declare their intent to 
participate in accordance with subsection (c) below and provide the CWG Chair 
with evidence that they meet the criteria set forth above.



An Applicant not already a member of the Forum SHALL provide the information 
required by Bylaw 2.1(b). Such Applicant SHALL become a Member once the CWG has 
determined by consensus among the Members during a CWG Meeting or 
Teleconference that the Applicant meets all of the requirements above or, upon 
the request of any Member of the CWG, by a Ballot among Members of the CWG. 
Acceptance by consensus shall be determined or a Ballot of the Members shall be 
held as soon as the Applicant indicates that it has presented all information 
required above and has responded to all follow-up questions from the CWG and 
the Member has complied with the requirements of Bylaw 5.5.



Certificate Issuer applicants that are not actively issuing code signing 
certificates but otherwise meet these membership criteria MAY request to the 
CWG that they be granted an invitation for Associate Member status in 
accordance with Bylaw 3.1, subject to conditions designated by the CWG.



The CWG SHALL allow participation by Interested Parties, as set forth in the 
Bylaws.



Members may resign from the CWG at any time. Resignation or other termination 
of membership in the CWG does not prevent a Member from potentially having 
continuing obligations, under the Forum's IPR Policy or any other document.



A Certificate Consumer Member's membership in the CWG will automatically cease 
if it stops providing updates for its membership-qualifying software product or 
six months have elapsed since the last such published update.



A Certificate Issuer's membership in the CWG may be suspended if any of the 
following become true:

1.          it fails to pass its membership-qualifying audit;

2.          its membership-qualifying audit is revoked, rescinded or withdrawn;

3.          fifteen months have elapsed since the end of the audit period of 
its last successful membership-qualifying audit; or

4.          it is no longer the case that its currently-issued certificates are 
treated as valid by at least one Certificate Consumer Member.



Any Member who believes one of the above circumstances is true of any other 
Member may report it on the CWG's Public Mail List. The CWG Chair will then 
investigate, including asking the reported Member for an explanation or 
appropriate documentation. If evidence of continued qualification for 
membership is not forthcoming from the reported Member within five working 
days, the CWG Chair will announce that such Member is suspended, such 
announcement to include the basis upon which the suspension has been made. A 
suspended Member who believes it has now re-met the membership criteria under 
the relevant clauses shall provide evidence to the CWG Chair who SHALL post it 
to the CWG Public Mail List. The CWG Chair will examine the evidence and 
unsuspend the member, or not, by announcement to the CWG Public Mail List. A 
Member's membership will automatically cease six months after it becomes 
suspended if the Member has not re-met the membership criteria by that time.



While suspended, a Member may participate in CWG Meetings, CWG Teleconferences, 
and on the CWG's discussion lists, but may not propose or endorse ballots or 
take part in any form of voting.

Votes cast before the announcement of a Member's suspension will stand.



c.      Membership Declaration

In accordance with the IPR Policy, all Members that choose to participate in 
the CWG and Applicants SHALL formally declare their participation in writing 
submitted to the CWG Chair and SHALL do so prior to participating. The Chair of 
the CWG SHALL establish a list for declarations of participation and manage it 
in accordance with the Bylaws, the IPR Policy, and the IPR Policy Agreement.



5.      Voting and Other Organizational Matters



5.1  The following rules will apply to all ballots, including Draft Guideline 
Ballots, defined in Bylaw 2.4.



(a)         Only votes by Members SHALL be accepted.



(b)         Only one vote per Member company SHALL be accepted; representatives 
of Affiliates SHALL NOT vote.



(c)         A representative of any Member MAY call for a proposed ballot to be 
published for discussion and comment by the membership. Any proposed ballot 
needs two endorsements by other Members in order to proceed. The discussion 
period then SHALL take place for at least seven calendar days before votes are 
cast. At any time, a new version of the ballot (marked with a distinguishing 
version number) may be posted by the proposer in the same manner as the 
original. Once no new version of the ballot has been posted for seven calendar 
days, the proposer may end the discussion period and start the voting period by 
reposting the final version of the ballot and clearly indicating that voting is 
to begin, along with the start and end dates and times (including time zone) 
for the voting period. The ballot automatically fails if 21 calendar days 
elapse since the proposer last posted a version of the ballot and the voting 
period has not been started.



(d)         Upon commencement of the voting period, Members SHALL have exactly 
seven calendar days for voting on the proposed ballot, with the deadline 
clearly communicated in the ballot and sent via the CWG Mail List. All voting 
will take place via the CWG Mail List. Votes not submitted to the CWG Mail List 
by the end of the voting period (as specified in the ballot) will not be 
considered valid and will not be counted for any purpose. Each Member, and not 
the CWG, will be responsible for taking precautions to make sure such Member's 
vote is submitted properly and counted. In the event that a Member's vote on a 
ballot is not submitted properly, such vote SHALL NOT be valid and SHALL NOT be 
counted for any purpose, and there SHALL be no appeal, revote (except in the 
case of a new ballot submitted to all Members) or other recourse.



(e)         Members MAY vote yes, no, or abstain on a ballot. Only votes that 
indicate a clear 'yes' or 'no' response to the ballot question SHALL be 
considered (i.e. votes to abstain and votes that do not indicate a clear 'yes' 
or 'no' response will not figure in the calculation of item (f), below).



(f)         Members fall into two categories for voting purposes-Certificate 
Issuers and Certificate Consumers, eligible as set forth in Section 4(b) above. 
 In order for a ballot to be adopted by the CWG, two-thirds or more of the 
votes cast by the Members in the Certificate Issuer category must be in favor 
of the ballot, and more than 50% of the votes cast by the Members in the 
Certificate Consumer category must be in favor of the ballot. At least one 
Member in each category must vote in favor of a ballot for the ballot to be 
adopted.



(g)         A ballot result will be considered valid only when the number of 
votes cast meets Quorum. Quorum is defined as the larger of three (3) or the 
average number of Member organizations that have participated in the last three 
(3) CWG Meetings or Teleconferences (not counting subcommittee meetings 
thereof). For transition purposes, if three (3) meetings have not yet occurred, 
quorum is three (3).



(h)         The Chair SHALL tabulate and announce the results within 3 business 
days of the close of the voting period.



5.2  Other Organizational Matters



(a)         The Chair may delegate any of his/her duties to the Vice Chair as 
necessary. The Vice Chair has the authority of the Chair in the event of any 
absence or unavailability of the Chair, and in such circumstances, any duty 
delegated to the Chair herein may be performed by the Vice Chair. For example, 
the Vice Chair may preside at CWG Meetings and Teleconferences in the Chair's 
absence.



(b)         CWG-created Subcommittees may be approved either (1) by formal 
ballot as described in 5.1(c) through (h), or (2) by simple majority vote of 
those members present at a regularly scheduled CWG Meeting or Teleconference 
provided that the proposal is mentioned in an agenda circulated on the CWG Mail 
List at least 24 hours prior to the CWG Meeting or Teleconference.



6.      Summary of Major Deliverables



The deliverables of the CWG are defined in the Scope section above.



7.      Primary Means of Communication



(a) The CWG SHALL appoint a webmaster to maintain the CWG's pages on the wiki 
and the Forum's Public Web Site.



(b) The CWG will communicate primarily through listserv-based email in 
accordance with Bylaw 5.3.1(d).  The CWG List SHALL be available to the public, 
who will not have posting privileges (i.e. anyone may subscribe to receive 
messages and the list may be crawled and indexed by Internet search engines).



(c) The CWG SHALL conduct periodic calls or face-to-face meetings as needed.  
Minutes SHALL be kept, and such minutes SHALL be made public in accordance with 
Bylaw 5.2.



8.      IPR Policy and Antitrust Policy



As with all Forum Working Group activity, the IPR Policy, v1.3 or later, SHALL 
apply to all activities and work of the CWG.  All Participants in the CWG SHALL 
have on file with the Forum a valid, signed IPR Policy Agreement (v.1.3).  A 
previously submitted IPR Policy Agreement (v1.3) by an existing Member of the 
Forum shall suffice as meeting the obligation under section 4.5 of the IPR 
Policy that a Participant in the CWG commit to CAB Forum License requirements.



In accordance with the Forum's antitrust policy, the CWG Chair will read an 
antitrust compliance statement at the start of all Working Group Meetings, in 
substantially the following form:



"As you know, this meeting includes companies that compete against one another. 
This meeting is intended to discuss technical standards related to the 
provision of existing and new types of digital certificates without restricting 
competition in developing and marketing such certificates. This meeting is not 
intended to share competitively-sensitive information among competitors, and 
therefore all participants agree not to discuss or exchange information related 
to:



(a)         Pricing policies, pricing formulas, prices or other terms of sale;

(b)         Costs, cost structures, profit margins,

(c)         Pending or planned service offerings,

(d)         Customers, business, or marketing plans; or

(e)         The allocation of customers, territories, or products in any way."





--- MOTION ENDS---





The procedure for approval of this ballot is as follows:



Discussion Period (7+ days):

            Start Time: Sunday, 17-February-2019 at 0100 UTC

            End Time: Monday, 25-February-2019 at 1600 UTC



Vote for Approval (7 days):

            Start Time: Monday, 25-February-2019 at 1600 UTC

            End Time: Monday, 4-March-2019 at 1600 UTC





_______________________________________________
Public mailing list
Public@cabforum.org
https://cabforum.org/mailman/listinfo/public

Reply via email to