Ballot SC043: Clarify Acceptable Status Codes

Ballot overview

• Ballot SC043, Clarify Acceptable Status Codes, was a Server Certificate Working Group ballot.
• It proposed changes to the Baseline Requirements for publicly-trusted certificates.
• The ballot was a Final Maintenance Guideline.

What the ballot changed

• It clarified the allowed HTTP status codes for redirects in domain validation methods 18 and 19.
• It replaced the broader 3xx redirection-class language with a requirement that redirects must result from 301, 302, 307, or 308 HTTP status code responses.
• It added that redirects must point to resource URLs contained in the Location HTTP response header.
• The linked redline also shows related wording updates so that redirects are described as being initiated at the HTTP protocol layer, and the remaining redirect requirements continue to cover http or https scheme use and Authorized Ports.

Voting result

• The ballot voting completed and the ballot failed.
• Certificate Issuer voting did not meet the required threshold.
• Certificate Consumer voting did not meet the required threshold.
• Quorum was not met.
• The page states the ballot is marked as failed and may be revised and submitted as a new ballot at a future date.

Dates

• Discussion period: 11-March 2021 21:30 UTC to 01-April 2021 16:00 UTC
• Voting period: 01-April 2021 16:00 UTC to 08-April 2021 16:00 UTC
• The linked BR redline table shows an effective date of 8-Apr-2021 and an additionally relevant compliance date of 1-Jul-2021 for SC43, but the ballot itself failed and therefore did not become normative.