CommPower's NATO Allied PCT Gateway

Product Overview

The NATO Allied PCT Gateway is a beta product developed for use in the MSDP (MMHS Security Demonstrator Program), managed by NATO NC3A, the Hague, Holland.

The PCT Gateway (MFI-PCT) is responsible for connecting S/MIME domains to the US DMS (ACP120) domain in a secure and transparent manner. During the translation process, the MFI-PCT converts both the message security label and the message content as necessary to support the security and content format restrictions of the receiving domain, while supporting fully the security provisions of the originating domain (i.e. signed receipts, PCT signature "pass thru", revocation processing, etc.).

Version 3.0, Annex B of the STANAG 4406 Standard specifies the Protecting Content Type (PCT) protocol as the method by which NATO Allies, with non-compatible security techniques, maintain the exchange of military message traffic in a secure and protected manner.

The MFI-PCT product is a specialized derivative of the CommPower Multi-Function Interpreter (MFI) Product, an X.400/SMTP/Legacy gateway. All core and X.400 functionality present within the MFI can also be found within the MFI-PCT with the addition of security label translation processing capability. As such, the reader should refer to the MFI Product Description for a full overview of the base product capabilities.

Security Label Translation

The MFI-PCT interoperates with the Secure MIME (S/MIME) and Common Security Protocol (CSP) security functions to generate and verify originator signatures which, due to the nature of the pair-wise key architecture (i.e. Public Key Encryption technology), provide non-reputable identification of the originator (i.e. key material) which signs a given data object. In addition, full certification path and revocation list processing are performed to further guarantee the integrity of the message. For the label translation processing the NSA sponsored Getronics SMIME/ACP120 PCT toolkit is utilized which not only converts SMIME labels to/from CSP labels, but it also relays any embedded PCT signature, thus ensuring true writer to reader security services.

The scheduled MSDP Security Interoperability Testing (SIT) for this product was successfully completed in June 2001.

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