PKI, Logs, And Tree Signatures
The PLANTS Working Group is chartered in the IETF Security Area. Its goal is to reduce the overhead of large post-quantum signatures in Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) systems that use Certificate Transparency (CT).
Post-quantum signature algorithms produce significantly larger signatures than classical algorithms. This becomes costly when integrating Certificate Transparency into PKI operations. PLANTS addresses this by integrating log construction into certificate issuance and developing Merkle Tree-based certificate constructions, allowing a single signature to cover multiple key/identifier bindings.
- Merkle Tree Certificates —
draft-ietf-plants-merkle-tree-certs— Reduces CT logging overhead while maintaining security properties comparable to X.509 and Certificate Transparency. - Deployment Use Cases —
draft-ietf-plants-deploy-use-cases— Explores when and how MTC in parts or full can be used in different use cases.
| Resource | Link |
|---|---|
| WG page | https://datatracker.ietf.org/wg/plants/about/ |
| Mailing list | plants@ietf.org |
| Mailing list archive | https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/plants/ |
| Document tracker | https://datatracker.ietf.org/wg/plants/documents/ |
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- Attend IETF meetings (the WG meets at each IETF meeting)
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