Merge pull request #9920 from davidhorstmann-arm/clarify-x509-security-md-2.28
[Backport 2.28] Add X.509 formatting validation to SECURITY.md
diff --git a/SECURITY.md b/SECURITY.md
index 732335b..d6c8f43 100644
--- a/SECURITY.md
+++ b/SECURITY.md
@@ -135,3 +135,22 @@
- Use cryptographic mechanisms that are not based on block ciphers. In
particular, for authenticated encryption, use ChaCha20/Poly1305 instead of
block cipher modes. For random generation, use HMAC\_DRBG instead of CTR\_DRBG.
+
+#### Formatting of X.509 certificates and certificate signing requests
+
+When parsing X.509 certificates and certificate signing requests (CSRs),
+Mbed TLS does not check that they are strictly compliant with X.509 and other
+relevant standards. In the case of signed certificates, the signing party is
+assumed to have performed this validation (and the certificate is trusted to
+be correctly formatted as long as the signature is correct).
+Similarly, CSRs are implicitly trusted by Mbed TLS to be standards-compliant.
+
+**Warning!** Mbed TLS must not be used to sign untrusted CSRs unless extra
+validation is performed separately to ensure that they are compliant to the
+relevant specifications. This makes Mbed TLS on its own unsuitable for use in
+a Certificate Authority (CA).
+
+However, Mbed TLS aims to protect against memory corruption and other
+undefined behavior when parsing certificates and CSRs. If a CSR or signed
+certificate causes undefined behavior when it is parsed by Mbed TLS, that
+is considered a security vulnerability.