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<!--#set var="pyca_subtitle" value="X.509 CA"-->
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<!--#set var="pyca_pagedescription" value="Software for running a X.509/PKIX certificate authority"-->
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<h2><A NAME="Abstract">Abstract</a></h2>
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The usage of cryptographic techniques promises secure usage of
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Internet services concerning authentication of clients and servers and
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authorized access to sensitive data. During the last two years it turned
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out that X.509 certificates, SSL and S/MIME are the relevant, widely
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adopted cryptographic standards for securing various Internet services
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However these standards require setting up a working X.509-based PKI
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(pulic key infrastructure).
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Although there is a quite lot of documentation and some example software
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for setting up a primitive PKI with an own certificate authority
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with the free package <a href="http://www.openssl.org/">OpenSSL</a>
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it seems that this task is not easy for most people. There is a lot of
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discussion on various mailing-lists, e.g. how to generate self-signed
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CA certificates, generate certificate requests with the famous WWW browsers and how to provide
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client certificates / certificate revocation lists for download, etc.
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Additionally if the certification business of an organization gets only a
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little bit more serious one has to take care about critical security issues.
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<a href="http://www.pyca.de/">pyCA</a> tries to make it
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easier for people to set up and run a organizational certificate authority
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which fulfills the need for a fairly secure certification processing.
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The package also tries to reduce administrative tasks and user's frustration
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by providing a comfortable web interface to users contacting the certificate
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<h2>Project status</h2>
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Unfortunately I do not have the time at the moment to spend more time
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on developing this project. I will apply bug fixes and patches submitted
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by users as long as they do not require too much rewriting of code.
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