---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 03 Nov 2000 16:48:36 +1000
From: Geoff Elgey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [ASN.1] PER/DER
G'day,
> Can any one tell me whether X.509's ASN.1 specification can be encoded/decoded
>using PER.
> If yes , then why is it that most of them go for DER
> (subset of BER.) for encoding/decoding X.509 messages.
> although PER gives the most compact encoding.
Originally, DER was required over BER as the objects to be signed had to
be represented unambiguously. Since BER allows various sender's options,
there was no way to guarantee that a received encoding and the signed
representation of that encoding would match.
In theory, PER encoding could also be used. However, it was not
available at the time the X.509 standard was developed. For
compatibility (and the fact that more DER encoders/decoders exist than
for PER), DER encoding is still the standard.
Cheers,
Geoff
--
Geoffrey Elgey ph: +61-7-38641487 Distributed Systems Technology
Centre
Security Unit fax:+61-7-38641282 QUT, Brisbane, Australia
http://www.dstc.edu.au
DSTC is the Australian W3C Office email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
