April 13, 1995

John Lowry
Senior Member of the Technical Staff

Bolt Beranek and Newman, Inc.
70 Fawcett St
Cambridge, MA.  02138  

email: jlowry@bbn.com

(617) 873-2435 Direct
(617) 873-4086 Fax


Project: Location Independent Information Object Security
(IOS)

Bolt Beranek and Newman, Inc. (BBN), under contract to the
Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), has developed the
Information Object Security (IOS) Tools.  These tools use
object identifiers which are registered as Computer Security
Objects.  ARPA has unlimited rights in the software
containing the objects.  BBN specified, created, and named
the objects under contract to ARPA, and remains the primary
point of contact on all questions regarding naming
conflicts.  The NIST Computer Security Objects Register
(CSOR) assumes no responsibility pertaining to any inquiry
regarding ownership or naming conflicts. 

The IOS software is publicly available and can be obtained
on the Internet for anonymous ftp at ests.bbn.com. 

Object naming information
-------------------------

   IOS Data Component:  2.16.840.101.3.3.0.0

      iosp (3) components (0) dataComponent (0)

   id-ios-dataComponent


Object definition and description
---------------------------------

The data component is one of several components defined by
the Location Independent Information Object Security (IOS)
project.  The IOS components are used singly or in
combination with others to achieve a variety of security
services.

This is a syntax that denotes an IOS data component. The
data component is used to identify and carry a single piece
of data such as a user's document.

   DataComponent ::= SEQUENCE {
     dataID          DataID,
     dataObjectType  DataObjectType,
     description     T61String OPTIONAL,
     data            OCTET STRING }

   DataID ::= SEQUENCE {
     componentType   OBJECT IDENTIFIER,
     time            GeneralizedTime,
     random          OCTET STRING SIZE (2..2),
     name            EntityName,

   ReferenceID ::= SEQUENCE OF DataID

   EntityName ::= SEQUENCE {
     formal          Name OPTIONAL,
     informal        OCTET STRING OPTIONAL}

   DataObjectType ::= SEQUENCE {
     type            OBJECT IDENTIFIER,
     info            ANY DEFINED BY type OPTIONAL }


Object usage and rules
-----------------------

Data components contain a DataID with the object identifier
that defines the type of component.  The DataID provides a
unique identification for a component by the combination of
the componentType, time, random, and name items.  The random
element distinguishes among components created at the same
time by the same user, with the EntityName.  The informal
name field is provided for those users who do not have
Names.  Such users must take care to supply an informal name
that they can be certain is unique, such as an RFC822
address.

The time is the time the component was created, not the time
its contents were created.  Time is specified in
GeneralizedTime to allow for an explicit century counter and
thus avoid ambiguity as the new century approaches.  Time is
specified to a granularity of seconds.

A data component also contains a dataObjectType that is used
to identify the kind of data being carried.  The data OCTET
STRING supplies the type for encoding the data.

A data component is the only component that cannot refer or
point to another component in a component list.

If the data OCTET STRING is specified in ASN.1, it must be
encoded prior to being submitted to the application creating
a DataComponent.  The application then encodes the submitted
data as an OCTET STRING.