



Secure Patterns for Internet CrEdentials                    B. W. Zundel
Internet-Draft                                              Tradeverifyd
Intended status: Standards Track                               P. Dingle
Expires: 31 December 2025                          Microsoft Corporation
                                                             M. B. Jones
                                                  Self-Issued Consulting
                                                            29 June 2025


              GLobal Unique Enterprise (GLUE) Identifiers
                      draft-ietf-spice-glue-id-01

Abstract

   This specification establishes an IETF URN namespace for GLobal
   Unique Enterprise (GLUE) Identifiers.  It also establishes an IETF
   URN namespace for identifiers defined by the IETF Secure Patterns for
   Internet CrEdentials (SPICE) working group.  The GLUE URN namespace
   is within the SPICE URN namespace.

About This Document

   This note is to be removed before publishing as an RFC.

   The latest revision of this draft can be found at https://ietf-wg-
   spice.github.io/draft-ietf-spice-glue-id/draft-ietf-spice-glue-
   id.html.  Status information for this document may be found at
   https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-spice-glue-id/.

   Discussion of this document takes place on the Secure Patterns for
   Internet CrEdentials Working Group mailing list
   (mailto:spice@ietf.org), which is archived at
   https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/spice/.  Subscribe at
   https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/spice/.

   Source for this draft and an issue tracker can be found at
   https://github.com/ietf-wg-spice/draft-ietf-spice-glue-id.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.




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   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
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   This Internet-Draft will expire on 31 December 2025.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2025 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     1.1.  Requirements Notation and Conventions . . . . . . . . . .   3
     1.2.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   2.  Core Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     2.1.  Uniqueness and Namespacing  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   3.  GLUE URIs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   4.  GLUE Authority Identifiers  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   5.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   6.  Privacy Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     6.1.  Private Identifiers as Corporate Identifiers  . . . . . .   6
   7.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     7.1.  SPICE URN Registry  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
       7.1.1.  Registration Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
       7.1.2.  Initial Registry Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     7.2.  GLUE Authority Identifier URN Registry  . . . . . . . . .   9
       7.2.1.  Registration Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
       7.2.2.  Initial Registry Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   8.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
     8.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
     8.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
   Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
   Document History  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11





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1.  Introduction

   Enterprise entity identifiers are myriad.  With the increasing use of
   digital credentials, there is a need for a common methodology for
   expressing these identifiers such that claims about and by such
   entities can be made in a consistent and interoperable manner.

   This specification establishes an IETF URN namespace that
   standardizes the expression of existing organizational entity
   identifiers by providing a common representation format.  It also
   establishes a registry for managing how existing organizational
   entity identification mechanisms relate to this namespace.

   Any organizational entity identifier whose identification mechanism
   has been registered as an Authority Identifier in the registry may be
   represented as a GLUE URI.

1.1.  Requirements Notation and Conventions

   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.  Terminology

   This specification uses the following terms:

   GLUE URI:  a URI that uses the GLUE URN namespace established in this
      specification.

   External Authority:  an organization that allocates External
      Identifiers for GLUE URIs using the Authority Identifier(s) over
      which they have jurisdiction.

   Authority Identifier:  identifier for the External Authority
      responsible for assigning the External Identifier used in GLUE
      URIs.

   External Identifier:  identifier assigned by an External Authority to
      identify a particular organization within GLUE URNs over which it
      has jurisdiction.

2.  Core Concepts

   Every GLUE URI MUST contain the following components:




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   *  The Authority Identifier

   *  The External Identifier

2.1.  Uniqueness and Namespacing

   Each GLUE URI MUST be globally unique.  It is assumed that most
   registered organizational entity identification schemes already
   handle any necessary namespacing as part of the External Identifier.
   However, if collisions are possible within the set of possible
   external identifiers for an Authority Identifier scheme, then further
   namespacing might be necessary at the GLUE URI level.  Such
   namespacing SHOULD be done on the Authority Identifier as part of the
   registration process.

   That is, the different namespaces would be considered either
   different schemes operated by the same authority, or the same scheme
   operated by different authorities.  In either case a unique Authority
   Identifier would be necessary for each.

   For example, assume there is an External Authority FEA that provides
   identifiers for organizational entities in USA and Canada.  The
   identifiers in the USA are unique, and the identifiers in Canada are
   unique, but there is no guarantee that an organizational entity in
   Canada will not be assigned the same identifier as an organizational
   entity in the USA.  Upon registration of FEA as an Authority
   Identifier, it would be necessary to separately register FEA-USA and
   FEA-Can to provide differentiation between the two sets of External
   Identifiers.

3.  GLUE URIs

   All GLUE URIs comply with [RFC3986].  They begin with
   urn:ietf:spice:glue: and are followed by an Authority Identifier, a
   colon character (":"), and the External Identifier allocated by the
   authority.

   Authority Identifiers consist of a sequence of characters beginning
   with a letter and followed by any combination of letters, digits,
   plus ("+"), period ("."), or hyphen ("-").  Although Authority
   Identifiers are case-insensitive, the canonical form is lowercase and
   documents that specify Authority Identifiers must do so with
   lowercase letters.  An implementation should accept uppercase letters
   as equivalent to lowercase in Authority Identifier names (e.g., allow
   "EXAMPLE" as well as "example") for the sake of robustness but should
   only produce lowercase Authority Identifier names for consistency.
   The ABNF [RFC5234] for Authority Identifiers is:




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   authority-identifier = ALPHA *( ALPHA / DIGIT / "+" / "-" / "." )

   External Identifiers consist of a sequence of characters beginning
   with a letter or digit or hyphen ("-") and followed by any
   combination of letters, digits, plus ("+"), period ("."), or hyphen
   ("-").  A digit or hyphen is allowed as the first character to permit
   the case where the External Identifier is the representation of a
   number.  It is specific to the Authority Identifier whether the
   External Identifiers are case-insensitive or case-sensitive.  When
   they are case-insensitive, the canonical form is lowercase and
   documents that specify External Identifiers must do so with lowercase
   letters.  The ABNF [RFC5234] for External Identifiers is:

   external-identifier = ( ALPHA / DIGIT / "-" ) *( ALPHA / DIGIT / "+"
   / "-" / "." )

   Combining these, the ABNF [RFC5234] for a GLUE URI is:

   glue-uri = "urn:ietf:spice:glue:" authority-identifier ":" external-
   identifier

   For example, the following is a GLUE URI using the Authority
   Identifier "example" and the External Identifier "42":

   urn:ietf:spice:glue:example:42

   The Authority Identifier MUST be registered in the GLUE URI Authority
   Identifier registry defined in Section 7.2.  The External Identifier
   MUST be the identifier assigned to the organization by the External
   Authority.

4.  GLUE Authority Identifiers

   This section defines the following GLUE Authority Identifiers.

















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     +==============+============+===================================+
     | Organization | Authority  | External Authority Specification  |
     |              | Identifier |                                   |
     +==============+============+===================================+
     | GS1          | gln        | https://www.gs1.org/standards/id- |
     |              |            | keys/gln                          |
     +--------------+------------+-----------------------------------+
     | GLEIF        | lei        | https://www.iso.org/              |
     |              |            | standard/78829.html               |
     +--------------+------------+-----------------------------------+
     | Dun &        | duns       | https://www.dnb.com/duns.html     |
     | Bradstreet   |            |                                   |
     +--------------+------------+-----------------------------------+
     | Private      | pen        | https://www.iana.org/assignments/ |
     | Enterprise   |            | enterprise-numbers/               |
     | Numbers      |            |                                   |
     +--------------+------------+-----------------------------------+

                                  Table 1

   They are registered in the GLUE Authority Identifier URN Registry in
   Section 7.2.

5.  Security Considerations

   There are no additional security considerations beyond those already
   inherent to using URNs.  Security considerations for URNs can be
   found in [RFC2141].

6.  Privacy Considerations

6.1.  Private Identifiers as Corporate Identifiers

   There are some corporate identifiers that make use of personal
   identifiers.  This is the case for some registered sole-proprietor
   businesses in the United States, where the business identifier may be
   the same as the social-security-number of the business owner.

   It is possible for such identifiers to be represented as GLUE URIs.
   An identifier's expression as a GLUE URI does not change the privacy
   characteristics of that identifier.  The same cautions and concerns
   need to be taken with the GLUE URI representation as with the
   original identifier.

   Implementers storing or evaluating GLUE URIs are encouraged to
   evaluate the privacy characteristics of each identification scheme
   represented by an Authority Identifier and to appropriately handle
   any GLUE URI which violates privacy policies.



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7.  IANA Considerations

   This section establishes two registries and populates them with their
   initial contents.  The following registration procedure is used for
   the registries established by this specification.

   Values are registered on a Specification Required [RFC8126] basis
   after a two-week review period on the spice-ext-review@ietf.org
   mailing list, on the advice of one or more Designated Experts.
   However, to allow for the allocation of values prior to publication
   of the final version of a specification, the Designated Experts may
   approve registration once they are satisfied that the specification
   will be completed and published.  However, if the specification is
   not completed and published in a timely manner, as determined by the
   Designated Experts, the Designated Experts may request that IANA
   withdraw the registration.

   Registration requests sent to the mailing list for review should use
   an appropriate subject (e.g., "Request to register URN
   urn:ietf:spice:example" or "Request to register URN
   urn:ietf:spice:glue:example").

   Within the review period, the Designated Experts will either approve
   or deny the registration request, communicating this decision to the
   review list and IANA.  Denials should include an explanation and, if
   applicable, suggestions as to how to make the request successful.
   The IANA escalation process is followed when the Designated Experts
   are not responsive within 14 days.

   Criteria that should be applied by the Designated Experts includes
   determining whether the proposed registration duplicates existing
   functionality, determining whether it is likely to be of general
   applicability or whether it is useful only for a single application,
   and whether the registration makes sense.

   IANA must only accept registry updates from the Designated Experts
   and should direct all requests for registration to the review mailing
   list.

   It is suggested that multiple Designated Experts be appointed who are
   able to represent the perspectives of different applications using
   this specification, in order to enable broadly-informed review of
   registration decisions.  In cases where a registration decision could
   be perceived as creating a conflict of interest for a particular
   Expert, that Expert should defer to the judgment of the other
   Experts.





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   The reason for the use of the mailing list is to enable public review
   of registration requests, enabling both Designated Experts and other
   interested parties to provide feedback on proposed registrations.
   The reason to allow the Designated Experts to allocate values prior
   to publication as a final specification is to enable giving authors
   of specifications proposing registrations the benefit of review by
   the Designated Experts before the specification is completely done,
   so that if problems are identified, the authors can iterate and fix
   them before publication of the final specification.

7.1.  SPICE URN Registry

   This specification establishes the IANA "SPICE URN" registry creating
   a URN namespace for identifiers needed by the IETF Secure Patterns
   for Internet CrEdentials (SPICE) working group.  The registry records
   the URN and a reference to the specification that defines it.

7.1.1.  Registration Template

   URN:  The URN requested within the "urn:ietf:spice:" namespace.  The
      identifier following "urn:ietf:spice:" and before any following
      colon (":") character is not case sensitive and any letters MUST
      be expressed in lowercase characters.  This identifier MUST
      consist of a sequence of characters beginning with a letter and
      followed by any combination of letters, digits, plus ("+"), period
      ("."), or hyphen ("-").

   Description:  Brief description of the purpose of the SPICE URN.

   Change Controller:  For IETF stream RFCs, use "IETF".  For others,
      give the name of the responsible party.  Other details (e.g.,
      postal address, e-mail address, home page URI) may also be
      included.

   Specification Document(s):  Reference to the document or documents
      that specify the URN to be registered, preferably including URLs
      that can be used to retrieve the documents.  An indication of the
      relevant sections may also be included, but is not required.

7.1.2.  Initial Registry Contents

7.1.2.1.  urn:ietf:spice:glue

   *  URN: urn:ietf:spice:glue

   *  Description: GLUE URN namespace

   *  Change Controller: IETF



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   *  Specification Document(s): Section 3 of this specification

7.2.  GLUE Authority Identifier URN Registry

   This specification establishes the IANA "GLUE Authority Identifier
   URN" registry creating a URN namespace for Authority Identifiers for
   GLobal Unique Enterprise (GLUE) Identifiers.

   Each entry registers the URN for an Authority Identifier within the
   "urn:ietf:spice:glue:" namespace.  The organization responsible for
   the Authority Identifier is recorded.

7.2.1.  Registration Template

   Authority Identifier:  identifier for the External Authority
      responsible for assigning the External Identifier used in GLUE
      URIs.  This identifier is not case sensitive and any letters MUST
      be expressed in lowercase characters.  It MUST consist of a
      sequence of characters beginning with a letter and followed by any
      combination of letters, digits, plus ("+"), period ("."), or
      hyphen ("-").

   URN:  The URN within the "urn:ietf:spice:glue:" namespace consisting
      of "urn:ietf:spice:glue:" followed by the Authority Identifier.

   Organization:  The organization responsible for the Authority
      Identifier.

   Change Controller:  For IETF stream RFCs, use "IETF".  For others,
      give the name of the responsible party.  Other details (e.g.,
      postal address, e-mail address, home page URI) may also be
      included.

   Specification Document(s):  Reference to the document or documents
      that specify the Authority Identifier to be registered, preferably
      including URLs that can be used to retrieve the documents.  An
      indication of the relevant sections may also be included, but is
      not required.

7.2.2.  Initial Registry Contents

7.2.2.1.  gln

   *  Authority Identifier: gln

   *  URN: urn:ietf:spice:glue:gln

   *  Organization: GS1



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   *  Change Controller: IETF

   *  Specification Document(s): Section 4 of this specification

7.2.2.2.  lei

   *  Authority Identifier: lei

   *  URN: urn:ietf:spice:glue:lei

   *  Organization: GLEIF

   *  Change Controller: IETF

   *  Specification Document(s): Section 4 of this specification

7.2.2.3.  duns

   *  Authority Identifier: duns

   *  URN: urn:ietf:spice:glue:duns

   *  Organization: Dun & Bradstreet

   *  Change Controller: IETF

   *  Specification Document(s): Section 4 of this specification

7.2.2.4.  pen

   *  Authority Identifier: pen

   *  URN: urn:ietf:spice:glue:pen

   *  Organization: Private Enterprise Numbers

   *  Change Controller: IETF

   *  Specification Document(s): Section 4 of this specification

8.  References

8.1.  Normative References

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2119>.



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   [RFC3986]  Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and L. Masinter, "Uniform
              Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax", STD 66,
              RFC 3986, DOI 10.17487/RFC3986, January 2005,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3986>.

   [RFC8174]  Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
              2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174,
              May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8174>.

8.2.  Informative References

   [RFC2141]  Moats, R., "URN Syntax", RFC 2141, DOI 10.17487/RFC2141,
              May 1997, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2141>.

   [RFC8126]  Cotton, M., Leiba, B., and T. Narten, "Guidelines for
              Writing an IANA Considerations Section in RFCs", BCP 26,
              RFC 8126, DOI 10.17487/RFC8126, June 2017,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8126>.

Acknowledgments

   Alexander (A.J.)  Stein and Martin Thomson contributed to this
   specification.

Document History

   -01

   *  Updated Brent's affiliation.

   -00

   *  Initial working group draft, based on draft-zundel-spice-glue-
      id-02

Authors' Addresses

   Brent W. Zundel
   Tradeverifyd
   United States
   Email: brent.zundel@gmail.com


   Pamela Dingle
   Microsoft Corporation
   United States
   Email: pamela.dingle@microsoft.com




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   Michael B. Jones
   Self-Issued Consulting
   United States
   Email: michael_b_jones@hotmail.com
   URI:   https://self-issued.info/














































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