X.500 Standard status
(Implementors' Guide)
X.509 Related activities
How to be involved
More Information
Tutorial section 1
X.500 General
Tutorial section 2
X.509 specific
Other PKI organizations
This website covers two main purposes and therefore has two distinct types of content.
This section is the official source for information about the status of the X.500 standardisation process, including reports and corrections of know defects, the status of extensions, meeting information, etc. It is intended for implementors and others that wants to keep up with the state of X.500. This type of information is provided under the heading: X.500 STANDARD STATUS (IMPLEMENTORS' GUIDE).
The X.500 specification is a standard for how information about objects, like people, organisations, applications, etc. is stored, maintained, updated, interrogated and deleted. Entries about objects are organised in a hierarchical structure reflecting the real life hierarchy. Information in an X.500 directory may be distributed and/or replicated among different directory servers. A directory server is called a Directory System Agent (DSA). A client accessing an X.500 directory is called a Directory User Agent (DUA). A client may also be a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) client.
Substantial tutorial material is provided in a section for X.500 in general and in a special section for X.509. This material will be extended as time allows. If you want an introduction to X.500 you may start here.
This site provides other useful pieces of information for understanding and make use of X.500.