13 April 1998
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 06:43:07 +0200 (MET DST) Subject: S/MIME Freeware Library (SFL) To: cypherpunks@toad.com From: nobody@REPLAY.COM (Anonymous) All, The S/MIME Freeware Library (SFL) is a reference implementation of the IETF S/MIME v3 CMS and ESS I-Ds. All source code for the SFL will be provided at no cost and with no limitations regarding its use and distribution. Organizations will be able to use the SFL without paying any royalties or licensing fees. J.G. Van Dyke and Associates, Inc, (VDA) is developing the SFL under contract to the US Government. Draft versions of the SFL Fact Sheet, Software Design Description (SDD) and Application Programming Interface (API) documents (including SFL header files) are now available. The Internet Mail Consortium (IMC) has established an SFL web page at http://www.imc.org/imc-sfl/ which includes links to the SFL documents stored on the VDA web site http://www.jgvandyke.com/services/infosec/sfl.html The IMC has also established an SFL mail list which will be used to: distribute information regarding SFL releases; discuss SFL-related issues; and provide a means for SFL users to provide feedback, comments, bug reports, etc. Please note that all SFL-related discussion should occur on the imc-sfl mail list and not the ietf-smime mail list. Subscription information for the imc-sfl mailing list is at the IMC Web site listed above. An incomplete, "interim release" of the SFL software will be available by 31 Mar 98. Further releases will be provided as significant capabilities are added. The target for completion of the SFL is June 1998. The stability of the S/MIME v3 set of specifications is a prerequisite for meeting this delivery goal. The SFL is composed of a high-level library that performs generic CMS and ESS processing independent of the crypto algorithms used to protect a specific object. The SFL high-level library makes calls to an algorithm-independent Crypto Token Interface API. The underlying, external crypto token libraries will not be distributed as part of the SFL source code. The application developer will independently obtain these libraries and then link them with the SFL. This strategy will allow the SFL source code to be freely distributed to the entire Internet community because it does not contain software that directly implements any crypto algorithms that are copyrighted or export controlled. IMC plans to add Web links pointing to freeware and commercial crypto libraries that are compatible with SFL as they become available.