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UC-027: Revoke Issuer Authorization

Reference Flow

Corresponds to Flow 6 — Trust Framework Management, section 6.3 (Authorization Revocation).

Functional Specification

This use case defines intended behavior. Issuer authorization revocation is not yet implemented.

Description​

The Trust Anchor or a parent Issuer revokes the authorization of an Issuer in the trust framework. The revocation cascades automatically: all Issuers that the revoked Issuer had delegated are also revoked. Credentials already issued by revoked Issuers will continue to exist but will fail the Issuer legitimacy verification.

Actors​

  • Trust Anchor / Parent Issuer: Entity that authorized the Issuer and now revokes the authorization
  • Revoked Issuer: Issuer whose authorization is being revoked
  • Blockchain: Distributed network where the Trusted List is updated

Preconditions​

  • The Issuer to be revoked has an active authorization in the trust framework (UC-025)
  • The revoking entity is the one that originally authorized the Issuer (Trust Anchor or parent Issuer)

Main Flow​

  1. The Trust Anchor or parent Issuer initiates the revocation
  2. The system performs cascade revocation:
    • Revokes the Issuer's authorization
    • Automatically revokes all Issuers that this Issuer had delegated (UC-026)
  3. The blockchain updates the Trusted List with the new states
  4. Credentials already issued by revoked Issuers continue to exist but will fail the Issuer legitimacy verification during presentation verification (UC-015)

Alternative Flows​

AF-1: Issuer not found in trust framework​

  • At step 1, the Issuer is not registered in the trust framework
  • The operation is rejected

AF-2: Unauthorized revoker​

  • At step 1, the entity attempting the revocation is not the one that authorized the Issuer
  • The revocation is rejected — only the authorizing entity can revoke

AF-3: Blockchain transaction fails​

  • At step 3, the transaction fails
  • The revocation is not recorded — can be retried

Postconditions​

  • The Issuer's authorization is revoked in the Trusted List
  • All delegated authorizations from the revoked Issuer are also revoked (cascade)
  • Future verifications of credentials issued by the revoked Issuer will fail the legitimacy check
  • The revocation is recorded as auditable evidence (UC-028)

Modules Involved​

ModuleRole
frontendRevocation UI for Trust Anchor and parent Issuers
backendCascade revocation processing
blockchainTrusted List update, cascade state management

Technical Notes​

  • Cascade revocation: Revoking a parent Issuer automatically revokes all children in the delegation chain
  • Credential impact: Already-issued credentials are not invalidated by themselves — but they will fail the trust framework check during verification
  • Irreversible: Authorization revocation is permanent — re-authorization requires a new registration process
  • Standards: eIDAS 2.0 (Trusted Lists), W3C DID v1.0