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[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 247 (Wednesday, December 27, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 61258-61260]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-27893]

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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Institute of Standards and Technology

[Docket No.: 171108999-7999-01]

National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) Transport 
Layer Security (TLS) Server Certificate Management Building Block

AGENCY: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Department of 
Commerce.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 
invites organizations to provide products and technical expertise to 
support and demonstrate security platforms for the Transport Layer

[[Page 61259]]

Security (TLS) Server Certificate Management Building Block. This 
notice is the initial step for the National Cybersecurity Center of 
Excellence (NCCoE) in collaborating with technology companies to 
address cybersecurity challenges identified under the TLS Server 
Certificate Management Building Block. Participation in the building 
block is open to all interested organizations.

DATES: Interested parties must contact NIST to request a letter of 
interest template to be completed and submitted to NIST. Letters of 
interest will be accepted on a first come, first served basis. 
Collaborative activities will commence as soon as enough completed and 
signed letters of interest have been returned to address all the 
necessary components and capabilities, but no earlier than January 26, 
2018. When the building block has been completed, NIST will post a 
notice on the NCCoE TLS Server Certificate Management Building Block 
website at: https://nccoe.nist.gov/projects/building-blocks/tls-server-certificate-management announcing the completion of the building block 
and informing the public that it will no longer accept letters of 
interest for this building block.

ADDRESSES: The NCCoE is located at 9700 Great Seneca Highway, 
Rockville, MD 20850. Letters of interest must be submitted to [email protected] or via hardcopy to National Institute of Standards 
and Technology, NCCoE; 9700 Great Seneca Highway, Rockville, MD 20850. 
Organizations whose letters of interest are accepted in accordance with 
the process set forth in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this 
notice will be asked to sign a consortium Cooperative Research and 
Development Agreement (CRADA) with NIST. An NCCoE consortium CRADA 
template can be found at: http://nccoe.nist.gov/node/138.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Tim Polk, William Haag, Jr. and 
Murugiah Souppaya via email to [email protected]; by 
telephone 301-975-0239; or by mail to National Institute of Standards 
and Technology, NCCoE; 9700 Great Seneca Highway, Rockville, MD 20850. 
Additional details about the TLS Server Certificate Management Building 
Block are available at: https://nccoe.nist.gov/projects/building-blocks/tls-server-certificate-management.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Background: The NCCoE, part of NIST, is a public-private 
collaboration for accelerating the widespread adoption of integrated 
cybersecurity tools and technologies. The NCCoE brings together experts 
from industry, government, and academia under one roof to develop 
practical, interoperable cybersecurity approaches that address the 
real-world needs of complex Information Technology (IT) systems. By 
accelerating dissemination and use of these integrated tools and 
technologies for protecting IT assets, the NCCoE will enhance trust in 
U.S. IT communications, data, and storage systems; reduce risk for 
companies and individuals using IT systems; and encourage development 
of innovative, job-creating cybersecurity products and services.
    Process: NIST is soliciting responses from all sources of relevant 
security capabilities (see below) to enter into a Cooperative Research 
and Development Agreement (CRADA) to provide products and technical 
expertise to support and demonstrate security platforms for the TLS 
Server Certificate Management Building Block. The full building block 
can be viewed at: https://nccoe.nist.gov/projects/building-blocks/tls-server-certificate-management.
    Interested parties should contact NIST using the information 
provided in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section of this notice. 
NIST will then provide each interested party with a letter of interest 
template, which the party must complete, certify that it is accurate, 
and submit to NIST. NIST will contact interested parties if there are 
questions regarding the responsiveness of the letters of interest to 
the building block objective or requirements identified below. NIST 
will select participants who have submitted complete letters of 
interest on a first come, first served basis within each category of 
product components or capabilities listed below up to the number of 
participants in each category necessary to carry out this building 
block. However, there may be continuing opportunity to participate even 
after initial activity commences. Selected participants will be 
required to enter into a consortium CRADA with NIST (for reference, see 
ADDRESSES section above). NIST published a notice in the Federal 
Register on October 19, 2012 (77 FR 64314) inviting U.S. companies to 
enter into a National Cybersecurity Excellence Partnerships (NCEPs) in 
furtherance of the NCCoE. For this demonstration project, NCEP partners 
will not be given priority for participation.
    Building Block Objective: The building block objective is to 
improve the overall security of TLS certificates and private keys. A 
detailed description of the TLS Server Certificate Management Building 
Block is available at: https://nccoe.nist.gov/projects/building-blocks/tls-server-certificate-management.
    Requirements: Each responding organization's letter of interest 
should identify which security platform component(s) or capability(ies) 
it is offering. Letters of interest should not include company 
proprietary information, and all components and capabilities must be 
commercially available. Components are listed in section 3 of the TLS 
Server Certificate Management Building Block (for reference, please see 
the link in the Process section above) and include, but are not limited 
to:
     TLS servers in the Cloud.
     Public Certification Authority (CA).
     TLS Servers including webservers, application servers, or 
other services.
     TLS Load Balancers.
     DevOps Frameworks including application containers.
     Internal CAs.
     Certificate Management systems.
     Certificate Network Scanning Tools including vulnerability 
scanning.
    Each responding organization's letter of interest should identify 
how their products address one or more of the following desired 
solution characteristics in Section 3 of the TLS Server Certificate 
Management Building Block (for reference, please see the link in the 
Process section above):
    1. External Systems--The architecture will include the following 
components that typically reside outside the organizational firewall:
     TLS Servers in the Cloud Environment: The cloud 
environment will include multiple cloud instances acting as TLS 
servers. Certificates will be deployed and managed on these systems.
     Public CA: A publicly trusted CA will be used to issue one 
or more of the certificates used on TLS servers on the internal or 
external systems.
    2. Internal Systems--The architecture will include several systems 
that are typically deployed within organizational network environments.
     TLS Servers: Multiple systems will be configured as TLS 
servers (e.g., webserver, application server, or other service). 
Certificates will be deployed and managed on these systems.
     Load Balancer: A load balancer will act as a TLS server 
with a certificate and will facilitate the load balancing of traffic to 
the other TLS servers.
     DevOps Framework(s): One or more DevOps frameworks (e.g., 
Docker) will be used to automate the management of cloud instances and 
the deployment of certificates on those instances.
     Internal CA: An internal CA will be used to issue 
certificates to some of the TLS servers.

[[Page 61260]]

     Certificate Manager: A certificate management system will 
be used to inventory and manage TLS server certificates deployed in the 
environment.
     Certificate Network Scanning Tool: A tool, such as a 
vulnerability scanning or other tool, will be used to facilitate the 
discovery of TLS server certificates via network scanning.
    3. Stakeholders/Roles--Humans play an important part in the 
management of TLS server certificates in enterprises; therefore, the 
following roles will be represented:
     Line of Business/Application Owner: People in leadership 
positions who are responsible for the line of business or application 
and who will drive the need for certificates to be deployed.
     System Administrators: Responsible for managing TLS 
servers and ensuring that the load balancer will be represented.
     DevOps Developer: Responsible for programming/configuring 
and managing the DevOps framework.
     Approver: One or more stakeholders who will review and 
approve/reject certificate management operations.
     PKI Team: One or more individuals who will manage the 
certificate management system and public/internal CAs.
    Responding organizations need to understand and, in their letters 
of interest, commit to provide:
    1. Access for all participants' project teams to component 
interfaces and the organization's experts necessary to make functional 
connections among security platform components.
    2. Support for development and demonstration of the TLS Server 
Certificate Management Building Block in NCCoE facilities which will be 
conducted in a manner consistent with the following standards and 
guidance: OMB Circular A-130; FIPS 200; FIPS 140-2; NIST Special 
Publications 800-52, 800-57, 800-63-3, 800-77, 800-177; NIST Framework 
for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity; and internet 
Engineering Task Force (IETF) Requests for Comments (RFCs) 2246, 4346, 
5280 and 5246. The project will also be informed by two in-progress 
IETF standards draft-ietf-tls-tls13-21 The Transport Layer Security 
(TLS) Protocol Version 1.3 and draft-ietf-acme-acme-07 Automatic 
Certificate Management Environment (ACME).
    Additional details about the TLS Server Certificate Management 
Building Block are available at: https://nccoe.nist.gov/projects/building-blocks/tls-server-certificate-management.
    NIST cannot guarantee that all the products proposed by respondents 
will be used in the demonstration. Each prospective participant will be 
expected to work collaboratively with NIST staff and other project 
participants under the terms of the consortium CRADA in the development 
of the TLS Server Certificate Management Building Block. Prospective 
participants' contribution to the collaborative effort will include 
assistance in establishing the necessary interface functionality, 
connection and set-up capabilities and procedures, demonstration 
harnesses, environmental and safety conditions for use, integrated 
platform user instructions, and demonstration plans and scripts 
necessary to demonstrate the desired capabilities. Each participant 
will train NIST personnel, as necessary, to operate its product in 
capability demonstrations. Following successful demonstrations, NIST 
will publish a description of the security platform and its performance 
characteristics sufficient to permit other organizations to develop and 
deploy security platforms that meet the security objectives of the TLS 
Server Certificate Management Building Block. These descriptions will 
be public information. Under the terms of the consortium CRADA, NIST 
will support development of interfaces among participants' products by 
providing IT infrastructure, laboratory facilities, office facilities, 
collaboration facilities, and staff support to component composition, 
security platform documentation, and demonstration activities.
    The dates of the demonstration of the TLS Server Certificate 
Management Building Block capability will be announced on the NCCoE 
website at least two weeks in advance at http://nccoe.nist.gov/. The 
expected outcome of the demonstration is to improve security of TLS 
certificates and private keys within the enterprise. Participating 
organizations will gain from the knowledge that their products are 
interoperable with other participants' offerings.
    For additional information on the NCCoE governance, business 
processes, and NCCoE operational structure, visit the NCCoE website 
http://nccoe.nist.gov/.

Kevin Kimball,
NIST Chief of Staff.
[FR Doc. 2017-27893 Filed 12-26-17; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-13-P
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