Thank you Ryan for spending your 4th of July weekend answering my questions! 
From my purely technical understanding, without knowing too much about the 
history in the discussion between the ETSI community and you nor about the 
“Überbau” of the audit schemes, I would believe that most of the points you 
mentioned could be easily fixed, especially since they don’t seem to be 
unreasonable. Of course, I can’t speak for ETSI but since Siemens is a 
long-standing member of ETSI I’ll forward your email to the correct working 
group and try to make sure that you will receive a constructive answer.

With best regards,
Rufus Buschart

Siemens AG
Siemens Operations
Information Technology
Value Center Core Services
SOP IT IN COR
Freyeslebenstr. 1
91058 Erlangen, Germany
Tel.: +49 1522 2894134
mailto:rufus.busch...@siemens.com
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Siemens Aktiengesellschaft: Chairman of the Supervisory Board: Jim Hagemann 
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Officer; Roland Busch, Klaus Helmrich, Cedrik Neike, Ralf P. Thomas; Registered 
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From: Ryan Sleevi <r...@sleevi.com>
Sent: Samstag, 4. Juli 2020 16:37
To: Buschart, Rufus (SOP IT IN COR) <rufus.busch...@siemens.com>
Cc: Peter Bowen <pzbo...@gmail.com>; 
mozilla-dev-security-pol...@lists.mozilla.org; r...@sleevi.com
Subject: Re: Key-destruction audit web-trust vs. ETSI (RE: SECURITY RELEVANT 
FOR CAs: The curious case of the Dangerous Delegated Responder Cert)



On Sat, Jul 4, 2020 at 9:17 AM Buschart, Rufus 
<rufus.busch...@siemens.com<mailto:rufus.busch...@siemens.com>> wrote:
Dear Ryan!

> From: dev-security-policy 
> <dev-security-policy-boun...@lists.mozilla.org<mailto:dev-security-policy-boun...@lists.mozilla.org>>
>  On Behalf Of Ryan Sleevi via dev-security-policy
> Sent: Freitag, 3. Juli 2020 23:30
> To: Peter Bowen <pzbo...@gmail.com<mailto:pzbo...@gmail.com>>
> Cc: Ryan Sleevi <r...@sleevi.com<mailto:r...@sleevi.com>>; Pedro Fuentes 
> <pfuente...@gmail.com<mailto:pfuente...@gmail.com>>; 
> mozilla-dev-security-pol...@lists.mozilla.org<mailto:mozilla-dev-security-pol...@lists.mozilla.org>
> Subject: Re: SECURITY RELEVANT FOR CAs: The curious case of the Dangerous 
> Delegated Responder Cert
>
> On Fri, Jul 3, 2020 at 4:19 PM Peter Bowen 
> <pzbo...@gmail.com<mailto:pzbo...@gmail.com>> wrote:
> > I agree that we cannot make blanket statements that apply to all CAs,
> > but these are some examples where it seems like there are alternatives
> > to key destruction.
> >
>
> Right, and I want to acknowledge, there are some potentially viable paths 
> specific to WebTrust, for which I have no faith with respect
> to ETSI precisely because of the nature and design of ETSI audits, that, in 
> an ideal world, could provide the assurance desired.

Could you elaborate a little bit further, why you don't have "faith in respect 
to ETSI"? I have to admit, I never totally understood your concerns with ETSI 
audits because a simple comparison between WebTrust test requirements and ETSI 
test requirements don't show a lot of differences. If requirements are missing, 
we should discuss them with ETSI representatives to have them included in one 
of the next updates.

ETSI ESI members, especially the vice chairs, often like to make this claim of 
“simple comparison”, but that fails to take into account the holistic picture 
of how the audits are designed, operated, and their goals to achieve.

For example, you will find nothing to the detail of say the AICPA Professional 
Standards (AT-C) to provide insight into the obligations about how the audit is 
performed, methodological requirements such as sampling design, professional 
obligations regarding statements being made which can result in censure or loss 
of professional qualification. You have clear guidelines on reporting and 
expectations which can be directly mapped into the reports produced. You also 
have a clear recognition by WebTrust auditors about the importance of 
transparency. They are not a checklist of things to check, but an entire set of 
“assume the CA is not doing this” objectives. And even if all this fails, the 
WebTrust licensure and review process provides an incredibly valuable check on 
shoddy auditors, because it’s clear they harm the “WebTrust brand”

ETSI ESI-based audits lack all of that. They are primarily targeted at a 
different entity - the Supervisory Body within a Member State - and ETSI 
auditors fail to recognize that browsers want, and expect, as much detail as 
provided to the SB and more. We see the auditors, and the TC, entirely 
dismissive to the set of concerns regarding the lack of consistency and 
transparency. There is similarly no equivalent set of professional standards 
here: this is nominally handled by the accreditation process for the CAB by the 
NAB, except that the generic nature upon which ETSI ESI audits are designed 
means there are few normative requirements on auditors, such as sampling and 
reporting. Unlike WebTrust, where the report has professional obligations on 
the auditor, this simply doesn’t exist with ETSI: if it isn’t a checklist item 
on 319 403, then the auditor can say whatever they want and have zero 
professional obligations or consequences. At the end of the day, an ETSI audit, 
objectively, is just a checklist review: 403 provides too little assurance as 
to anything else, and lacks the substance that holistically makes a WebTrust 
audit.

It is a comparison of “paint by numbers” to an actual creative work of art, and 
saying “I don’t understand, they’re both use paint and both are of a house”. 
And while it’s true both involve some degree of creative judgement, and it’s up 
to
https://mobile.twitter.com/artdecider<https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmobile.twitter.com%2Fartdecider&data=02%7C01%7Crufus.buschart%40siemens.com%7C378ec95d86634b33b4d108d82029ae9d%7C38ae3bcd95794fd4addab42e1495d55a%7C1%7C1%7C637294710676106553&sdata=CIuHi%2BLk0I2mmSSWj71ZLWdRuZLtl9mLHwGG2Ztx07M%3D&reserved=0>
 to sort that out, one of those paintings is more suited to the fridge than the 
mantelpiece.

The inclusion of the ETSI criteria, back in v1.0 of the Mozilla Root Store 
Policy in 2005, wasn’t based on a deeply methodical examination of the whole 
process. It was “Microsoft uses it, so they probably found it acceptable”. And 
it’s continuance wasn’t based on it meeting needs, so much as “it’d be nice to 
have an alternative to WebTrust for folks to use”. But both of those statements 
misunderstood the value ETSI ESI audits provide and the systemic issues, even 
if they were well-intentioned. The contemporary discussions, at that time, both 
of Scott Perry’s review (and acceptance) as an auditor independent of the 
WebTrust/ETSI duo and of the CACert audit, provide ample insight into the 
expectations and needs.

I don’t dismiss ETSI ESI for what it is trying to do: serve a legal framework 
set of objectives (eIDAS, which is itself neutral with respect to ETSI ESI 
audit schemes, as we see from the currently notified schemes). But that’s not 
what we’re trying to do, not what we need, and certainly lacks the body of 
supporting documents that provide transparency how audits are conducted, the 
professional consequences as to misrepresentation, and the engagement and 
agility we need to address these challenges. That ETSI ESI is still dismissive 
of the need for documenting incident reports in the audits, for example, simply 
highlights the continued throwing of good money after bad. And honestly, that’s 
OK: ETSI ESI and the Supervisory Bodies can work that out. The NAB/CAB 
Inconsistency among member states is clearly an issue of concern for ENISA and 
the EC, because it means their needs aren’t met. But there’s nothing at all to 
suggest that because ETSI made a checklist that looks like WebTrust’s checklist 
that they are, at all, remotely comparable. It is, in my view, no different 
than if someone came to m.d.s.p. and would like to be an auditor because, look, 
they have a checklist! And all their friends trust them, so you know they’re 
trustworthy! Yet that’s what happened with ETSI audits, and I strongly believe 
it was a mistake.

Nominally, this would be an area that ACAB’c can step in, except you realize 
it’s the same folks and the same problems. See the thread re: ACAB’c in which 
we’re still in the place where a claim is made “Ah, we do something, that’s why 
we’re trustworthy” and I have to point out public contradictions to that.

We can debate the merits of these statements, as I’m sure some auditors will 
jump in and do so, but my original point was one predicated on a lack of 
transparency and accountability by ETSI auditors that would remotely raise to 
the same level of assurance that we would see from AICPA, CPA Canada, or ISAE. 
ETSI is 100 years behind in having that body of documented evidence and 
procedure. And that absence is important enough that I don’t think the 
continued acceptance of ETSI audits should be a goal.
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