RFC 9549: Internationalization Updates to RFC 5280

1.1. Terminology

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here.¶

1.2. Changes since RFC 8399

In some cases, [RFC8399] required conversion of A-labels to U-labels in order to process name constraints for internationalized email addresses. This led to implementation complexity and at least two security vulnerabilities. One summary of the vulnerabilities can be found in [DDHQ]. Now, all IDNs are carried and processed as A-labels.¶

The Introduction provides a warning to implementers about the handling of characters in the Unicode Category "Symbol, Other" (So), which includes emoji characters.¶

2.1. Update in the Introduction (Section 1)

This update provides references for IDNA2008.¶

OLD¶

• Enhanced support for internationalized names is specified in Section 7, with rules for encoding and comparing Internationalized Domain Names, Internationalized Resource Identifiers (IRIs), and distinguished names. These rules are aligned with comparison rules established in current RFCs, including [RFC3490], [RFC3987], and [RFC4518].¶

NEW¶

• Enhanced support for internationalized names is specified in Section 7, with rules for encoding and comparing Internationalized Domain Names, Internationalized Resource Identifiers (IRIs), and distinguished names. These rules are aligned with comparison rules established in current RFCs, including [RFC3987], [RFC4518], [RFC5890], and [RFC5891].¶

2.2. Update in Name Constraints (Section 4.2.1.10)

This update removes the ability to include constraints for a particular mailbox. This capability was not used, and removing it allows name constraints to apply to email addresses in rfc822Name and SmtpUTF8Mailbox [RFC8398] within otherName.¶

OLD¶

A name constraint for Internet mail addresses MAY specify a particular mailbox, all addresses at a particular host, or all mailboxes in a domain. To indicate a particular mailbox, the constraint is the complete mail address. For example, "root@example.com" indicates the root mailbox on the host "example.com". To indicate all Internet mail addresses on a particular host, the constraint is specified as the host name. For example, the constraint "example.com" is satisfied by any mail address at the host "example.com". To specify any address within a domain, the constraint is specified with a leading period (as with URIs). For example, ".example.com" indicates all the Internet mail addresses in the domain "example.com", but not Internet mail addresses on the host "example.com".¶

NEW¶

A name constraint for Internet mail addresses MAY specify all addresses at a particular host or all mailboxes in a domain. To indicate all Internet mail addresses on a particular host, the constraint is specified as the host name. For example, the constraint "example.com" is satisfied by any mail address at the host "example.com". To specify any address within a domain, the constraint is specified with a leading period (as with URIs). For example, ".example.com" indicates all the Internet mail addresses in the domain "example.com" but not Internet mail addresses on the host "example.com".¶

2.3. Update in IDNs in GeneralName (Section 7.2)

This update aligns with IDNA2008. Since all of Section 7.2 of [RFC5280] is replaced, the OLD text is not provided.¶

NEW¶

Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) may be included in certificates and CRLs in the subjectAltName and issuerAltName extensions, name constraints extension, authority information access extension, subject information access extension, CRL distribution points extension, and issuing distribution point extension. Each of these extensions uses the GeneralName type; one choice in GeneralName is the dNSName field, which is defined as type IA5String.¶

IA5String is limited to the set of ASCII characters. To accommodate IDNs, U-labels are converted to A-labels. The A-label is the encoding of the U-label according to the Punycode algorithm [RFC3492] with the ACE prefix "xn--" added at the beginning of the string.¶

When comparing DNS names for equality, conforming implementations MUST perform a case-insensitive exact match on the entire DNS name. When evaluating name constraints, conforming implementations MUST perform a case-insensitive exact match on a label-by-label basis. As noted in Section 4.2.1.10, any DNS name that may be constructed by adding labels to the left-hand side of the domain name given as the constraint is considered to fall within the indicated subtree.¶

Implementations that have a user interface SHOULD convert IDNs to Unicode for display. Specifically, conforming implementations convert A-labels to U-labels for display purposes.¶

Implementation consideration: There are increased memory requirements for IDNs. An IDN ACE label will begin with the four additional characters "xn--", and an IDN can require as many as five ASCII characters to specify a single international character.¶

2.4. Update in IDNs in Distinguished Names (Section 7.3)

This update aligns with IDNA2008.¶

OLD¶

Domain Names may also be represented as distinguished names using domain components in the subject field, the issuer field, the subjectAltName extension, or the issuerAltName extension. As with the dNSName in the GeneralName type, the value of this attribute is defined as an IA5String. Each domainComponent attribute represents a single label. To represent a label from an IDN in the distinguished name, the implementation MUST perform the "ToASCII" label conversion specified in Section 4.1 of RFC 3490. The label SHALL be considered a "stored string". That is, the AllowUnassigned flag SHALL NOT be set.¶

NEW¶

Domain names may also be represented as distinguished names using domain components in the subject field, the issuer field, the subjectAltName extension, or the issuerAltName extension. As with the dNSName in the GeneralName type, the value of this attribute is defined as an IA5String. Each domainComponent attribute represents a single label. To represent a label from an IDN in the distinguished name, the implementation MUST convert all U-labels to A-labels.¶

2.5. Update in Internationalized Electronic Mail Addresses (Section 7.5)

This update aligns with IDNA2008 and [RFC8398]. Since all of Section 7.5 of [RFC5280] is replaced, the OLD text is not provided.¶

NEW¶

Electronic Mail addresses may be included in certificates and CRLs in the subjectAltName and issuerAltName extensions, name constraints extension, authority information access extension, subject information access extension, issuing distribution point extension, or CRL distribution points extension. Each of these extensions uses the GeneralName construct. If the email address includes an IDN but the local-part of the email address can be represented in ASCII, then the email address is placed in the rfc822Name choice of GeneralName, which is defined as type IA5String. If the local-part of the internationalized email address cannot be represented in ASCII, then the internationalized email address is placed in the otherName choice of GeneralName using the conventions in RFC 8398 [RFC8398].¶

When the host-part contains an IDN, conforming implementations MUST convert all U-labels to A-labels.¶

7.5.1. Local-Part Contains Only ASCII Characters¶

Two email addresses are considered to match if:¶

1)

The local-part of each name is an exact match, AND¶

2)

The host-part of each name matches using a case-insensitive ASCII comparison.¶

Implementations that have a user interface SHOULD convert the host-part of internationalized email addresses specified in these extensions to Unicode before display. Specifically, conforming implementations convert A-labels to U-labels for display purposes.¶

7.5.2. Local-Part Contains Non-ASCII Characters¶

When the local-part contains non-ASCII characters, conforming implementations MUST place the internationalized email address in the SmtpUTF8Mailbox within the otherName choice of GeneralName as specified in Section 3 of RFC 8398 [RFC8398]. Note that the UTF8 encoding of the internationalized email address MUST NOT contain a Byte-Order-Mark (BOM) [RFC3629] to aid comparison. The email address local-part within the SmtpUTF8Mailbox MUST conform to the requirements of [RFC6530] and [RFC6531].¶

Two email addresses are considered to match if:¶

1)

The local-part of each name is an exact match, AND¶

2)

The host-part of each name matches using a case-insensitive ASCII comparison.¶

Implementations that have a user interface SHOULD convert the host-part of internationalized email addresses specified in these extensions to Unicode before display. Specifically, conforming implementations convert A-labels to U-labels for display purposes.¶