Patent ID: 6950934

Claim:
A method for distributively managing the certificate revocation list (CRL) in a certifying system to certify the validity of a subscriber in an open communications network such as Internet, comprising the steps of: a) registering the certificate policy statement for the CRL by determining the distribution interval of the CRL; b) setting the structure of the certificate of the subscriber to issue the certificate according to the registered certificate policy statement; c) attesting the certificate by applying the distribution point mechanism according to the distribution interval to the CRL; and d) revoking the certificate by using the distribution points to revise the CRL displayed, wherein the step a) includes the steps of: a1) defining the number N of the nodes in the directory information tree (DIT) and the hash function H( ) to manage the CRL based on the number of the expected subscribers; a2) defining the subject name (SUBJECT_NAME) of the essential items constituting the certificate as the input value of the hash function; a3) calculating the distribution interval of the CRL by using following hash function H( ) and an equation V max - V min N = I , wherein V represents a value obtained by inputting the subject name (SUBJECT_NAME) to the hash function H( ), V max is a maximum value among a plurality of V, V min is a minimum value among a plurality of V, N is the number of the nodes and/is the distribution interval of the CRL; and a4) setting the value of the variable (crl_dp_flag) for the CRL according to the distribution interval.