X500Standard.com
The website of the X.500 Directory standard
X.500 Standard status
(Implementors' Guide)
- Introduction
- Standardization Procedures
- X.500 Document Structure
- X.500 docs not freely available
- X.500 docs freely available
- Current ASN.1 modules
- X.500 extension (excl. X.509)
- Submit a Defect Report
- Defect Reports
- Draft Tech Corrigenda
- Upcoming Meetings
- Meeting Reports
- A little history
X.509 Related activities
How to be involved
More Information
Tutorial section 1
X.500 General
- The X.500 Directory
- Relationship with LDAP
- Information structure & names
- X.500 protocols
- X.500 operations
- Navigation
- Directory Schema
- Access Control
- Replication (Shadowing)
- Families of Entries
- Hierarchical Groups
- Mapping Based Searches
- X.500 Service Concept
- X.500 Service Administration
- Data Privacy Protection
- ISSS Schema
Tutorial section 2
X.509 specific
- X.509 Introduction
- Public-key Certificates
- Public-Key Infrastructure (PKI)
- X.509 Extensions
- Protecting a directory
Other PKI organizations
- CA/Browser Forum
- IETF PKIX
- IETF Network Working Group
- ETSI ESI
- IETF Crypto Forum Research Group (CFRG)
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Welcome
This website covers two main purposes and therefore has two distinct types of content.
Official Source for the X.500 standardisation status
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).
Additional useful information
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.
A sample X.500 infrastructure
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.
- You may be involved in the process without necessarily participating directly in the standardisation process, although this would be most welcome. You may join the Mailing List, you may contribute to the Forum or you may contact us.
- There are links provided to useful X.500 Whitepapers.
- There are also links to other types of X.500 Literature to get a better understanding of directories in general and of X.500 in particular.
- There are several X.500 vendors and you may find information about their products here.
- Do you need help in directory questions, you can find information about consultancies here.
- Do you need X.500 education, you will find information here.