Release 10.1A: OpenEdge Getting Started:
Core Business Services

Trust

Trust is the ultimate foundation of all security systems, because ultimately, a security system is as secure as the trustworthiness of those who have the power to access and override that security system. While security systems attempt to assure that entities are properly authenticated and authorized, and that data is confidential, reliable, and nonrepudiatable, the entire enterprise depends on trust.

The question of trust is a whole study unto itself, and it is really quite independent of the technology required to support a security system. The definition of trust provided by the ITU-T Recommendation X.509 specification is:

‘Generally, an entity can be said to “trust” a second entity when it (the first entity) makes the assumption that the second entity will behave exactly as the first entity expects.’

Ultimately, trust depends on the confidence that users have in the trust mechanisms and all of the nontechnological entities involved with them that are designed to support trust in a security system.

Trust mechanisms typically implement a model (trust model) for facilitating trust in a security enterprise. Many trust models have been developed from which to implement the relationships (trust relationships) among the various entities in a security infrastructure. OpenEdge implements trust mechanisms that support the trust model provided by Public-Key Infrastructure (PKI), a methodology for supporting security services throughout an enterprise network.

The PKI trust model relies on various authorities and agreements that certify entity interactions and that software must support in order to implement a PKI. For more information on:

The trust model supported by PKI — See Chapter 5, " Public-Key Infrastructure (PKI)."
The elements of PKI implemented by OpenEdge — See Chapter 5 "Public-Key Infrastructure (PKI)" and Chapter 6, " Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)."