Front cover - IBM Redbooks

6.1 The Notes PKI
188 Lotus Security Handbook
We begin our discussion with the native PKI implementation in Lotus Notes and
Domino. There are two reasons for this:
► The PKI implementation is so transparent in Notes that it is easy to use and
understand. This is what has made it the largest PKI implementation in the
world, well ahead of anything else currently in use on the Internet.
► People who administer their Notes and Domino environment are already
familiar with the terms, tools, and technologies that make PKI implementation
happen.
There is a lot of information to cover. In Chapter 1, we discussed the key security
services that a secure system should offer. These are: confidentiality,
authentication and identification, integrity, and non-repudiation.
In this chapter we show that the public key infrastructure natively built in Notes
and Domino provides these services. Since confidentiality, integrity and
non-repudiation are dependant on authentication, we’ll primarily focus on this
security service.
The specific enhancements for Notes version 6 are discussed in a later section.
6.1.1 Registration and certification
Before we detail the PKI natively present in Notes and Domino, it is important to
talk about registration and certification, since these are frequently confused
terms.
Registration
Registration is the action by which a user’s details are entered in a directory. The
directory in question is the Domino Directory. The work product of registration in
Notes and Domino is the Notes ID.
Certification
Certification has two meanings that are pertinent to this chapter and to Notes
and Domino. To certify is to confirm formally that something is true, accurate,
genuine and that it meets a standard. To certify is also to issue a license or
certificate to. The work product of certification in Notes and Domino is the
creation of Notes certificates and their inscription in the Notes ID.