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Netscape Certificate Management System (CMS) comes with a set of
extension-specific policy plug-in modules that enable you to add X.509 certificate
extensions to the certificates the server issues. Some of the extensions contain fields
for specifying object identifiers. This appendix explain what's an object indentifier
(OID) and the significance of registering it.
This appendix contains the following sections:
•
"What's an Object Identifier?," on page 779
•
"Registration of Object Identifiers," on page 779
What's an Object Identifier?
An object identifier is a string of numbers identifying a unique object, for example,
a certificate extension or a company's certificate practice statement. OIDs are
controlled by the International Standards Organization (ISO) registration
authority. In some cases, this authority is delegated by ISO to regional registration
authorities. For example, in the United States, the American National Standards
Institute (ANSI) manages this registration.
Registration of Object Identifiers
To promote interoperatability, the PKIX standard recommends that all objects
(such as extensions and policy statements) that appear in certificates that will be
used in networks shared by other organizations should be included in the form of
OIDs. If you plan to issue certificates that will be used in such networks, you
should register your object identifier prefixes with the appropriate registration
authority. For example, assume you want to add a custom extension that points to
Appendix H
Object Identifiers
779
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