February 5, 2002
Practical Aspects of Modern Cryptography
43
Certificate Revocation
nA CA revokes a certificate by placing the cert on its Certificate Revocation List (CRL)
nEvery CA issues CRLs to cancel out issued certs
nA CRL is like anti-matter – when it comes into contact with a certificate it lists it cancels out the certificate
nThink “1970s-style credit-card blacklist”
nRelying parties are expected to check CRLs before they rely on a certificate
n“The cert is valid unless you hear something telling you otherwise”