Elliptic Curve Cryptography in X.509-based PKI

Abstract

In recent years a new category of digital signature algorithms based on Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) has taken place besides well known schemes as RSA or DSA. So far it is, however, still not obvious how ECC-based signature schemes can be integrated in X.509-based Public Key Infrastructures (PKI).This paper briefly introduces cryptographic basics of signature schemes based on elliptic curves and points out the necessary cryptography parameters that are important in this context. Afterwards the structure and the encoding of X.509 certificates and Certificate Revocation Lists (CRL) are discussed regarding the integration of ECC public keys and ECC signatures respectively. The paper closes with exemplary implementations of ECC-based security systems.