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The following commit(s) were added to refs/heads/main by this push:
     new 5be41b1  Delete the scannable secret drafts, which have moved to 
tooling-docs
5be41b1 is described below

commit 5be41b12afca6221934b42bc90d8daeb2f1fdc64
Author: Sean B. Palmer <[email protected]>
AuthorDate: Thu Dec 4 14:10:36 2025 +0000

    Delete the scannable secret drafts, which have moved to tooling-docs
---
 notes/draft-asf-token-standard-faq.md | 185 ----------------------------------
 notes/draft-asf-token-standard.md     | 114 ---------------------
 2 files changed, 299 deletions(-)

diff --git a/notes/draft-asf-token-standard-faq.md 
b/notes/draft-asf-token-standard-faq.md
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-# Draft ASF token standard FAQ
-
-This FAQ covers some feedback, largely [that of Greg Stein on 
Slack](https://the-asf.slack.com/archives/C086X8CKEMB/p1764212457655769), about 
the [Draft ASF token standard](draft-asf-token-standard.md) being proposed by 
ASF Tooling.
-
-Questions here are not copied verbatim from the original thread, so not 
everything may be covered. The intention here is to try to address the design 
in general, and to inform continued discussion.
-
-**Q. Why did we choose a design that is compatible with GitHub tokens?**
-
-A. We wanted to be compatible with existing scanners because those are what we 
are likely to be using to detect leaked tokens, which is the only reason for 
having a scannable token standard in the first place.
-
-Even if we were to, for example, write our own ASF secrets scanner, we would 
still probably use it in tandem with e.g. the GitHub secrets scanning scheme, 
because much of our code is shared on GitHub and they already have the 
infrastructure to scan the data that they host in bulk. Therefore, since we are 
already going to be relying on third parties (especially GitHub itself), it 
seems prudent to try to be compatible with their existing implementations.
-
-A good conceptual case here is that of the checksum, covered in the next 
question.
-
-**Q. Why not use CRC-16, which produces fewer characters and is in the Python 
standard library, instead of CRC-32?**
-
-A. GitHub use, and recommend the use, of CRC-32 in scannable tokens. They 
don't explicitly document which CRC-32 algorithm is used, but they do give an 
example and the example uses IEEE 802.3 CRC-32.
-
-Their documented reason for using CRC-32 is to lower the number of false 
positive matches. Since they [actually started using CRC-32 in their own tokens 
in 
2021](https://github.blog/changelog/2021-03-31-authentication-token-format-updates-are-generally-available/),
 we can assume that their scanning includes code to check the CRC-32. If we 
used CRC-16 instead, presumably GitHub would not use it to reduce false 
positives.
-
-There are, however, two very important caveats to this. One is that although 
GitHub started using CRC-32 in the tokens introduced in 2021, they may not be 
using it in the [fine-grained tokens that they introduced later, in 
2022](https://github.blog/security/application-security/introducing-fine-grained-personal-access-tokens-for-github/).
 The format of the fine-grained tokens is undocumented, but the fact that they 
do not mention CRC-32 when they mentioned it just one year earlier is ind [...]
-
-The second caveat is that although GitHub probably at least use CRC-32 to 
eliminate false positives of their 2021 tokens, unless the lack of it in the 
later tokens implies that they removed this functionality, there is no evidence 
that they use CRC-32 when scanning submitted tokens from other organisations. 
To submit a token you have to do so manually, to an email address, which 
somebody presumably reads and then gets an engineer to implement. This is an 
extremely manual process, so it m [...]
-
-Overall, how to be compatible with GitHub's secret scanner is not well 
documented. Their own internal practices are not well documented. They did not 
even appear to stay consistent with their own security best practices from a 
year prior to a new token release; yet they still promote the prior practices 
in their existing documentation. Whether we should aim to be compatible is, 
therefore, difficult to determine.
-
-**Q. What design choices are opened up if we choose not to be compatible with 
GitHub, or other, secret scanners?**
-
-A. All elements are open to alternative designs. We can use a different 
namespace. We can use a different alphabet for encoding the entropy. We can use 
a different amount of entropy. We can use a different checksum, or no checksum 
at all. We can order the elements in a different way. We can add other 
elements, e.g. for administrative reasons.
-
-There are reasons to do so, if compatibility is not an issue. Reverse domain 
names such as `org_apache` would be a better fit for prefixes to avoid 
collisions. They would also make leak reports self documenting, to a degree. 
One can even imagine a standard URL for finding out where to report leaked 
tokens based on RFC 8615, so for example if somebody found an `org_apache` 
token in the wild they could go to 
`https://www.apache.org/.well-known/secret-key-leak` to find instructions on 
where [...]
-
-Similarly, the choice of CRC-32 is unusual. As pointed out by Greg Stein, 
CRC-16 already eliminates the vast majority of false positives. Checksums are 
also widely used for purposes other than denoting a scannable secret, but the 
combination of the prefix and the existence of the checksum may be enough for 
domain separation. The question is what problem or attack we are trying to 
mitigate. If we are trying to avoid accidental collisions, a prefix and CRC-16 
are probably enough. If we are [...]
-
-There is no existing standard for scannable secret tokens except, arguably, 
for RFC 8959, the `secret-token` URL scheme, which is incompatible with 
`token68` due to its use of `:` which the latter forbids, and hence ruled out 
for use at the ASF. Moreover it is only scannable due to its scheme, and lacks 
basic features such as a minimum entropy level.
-
-**Q. Is it possible to design a truly universal scannable secret standard?**
-
-A. The idea behind universality is that any organisation could define a 
scannable token whose leakage could be autonomously reported without the 
requirement of central repositories. Presumably this requires some kind of API 
end point, or perhaps an email address similar to DMARC reports. The difficulty 
is deterring DoS attacks. The well known URL proposed in the previous section 
could include a machine readable link to an API, or itself be an API. There 
would then be two obvious sources  [...]
-
-The former attack can be mitigated by only accepting submissions from trusted 
partners, or by using standard filtering techniques that are already used to 
protect public APIs. The latter attack would have to be mitigated by partners 
themselves; for example, they could ban users found to be submitting deliberate 
false positive leaked tokens. So far this hasn't been an attack vector as far 
as the author is aware, but once APIs become involved the chance of attacks 
also rises.
-
-What about in the standard itself? Is it possible to authenticate a token? 
Well, obviously it is possible to authenticate a token because that is the very 
purpose of a token! But to do so requires making a call to an API, so there is 
nothing gained by having the token be authenticated by the issuer.
-
-Can we make it possible to authenticate a token without an API? Using an HMAC 
and shared secret, as mentioned in the previous section, falls short in 
requiring a shared secret. Using public key cryptography is just about feasible 
in terms of token size if we use ECC, but that requires the maintenance of a 
long term secret and the entire design would need to be changed when post 
quantum cryptography becomes necessary. ECC keys could be stored in a DNS 
record and then cached, by scanners a [...]
-
-**Q. What is the scope of the ASF token standard?**
-
-A. As the previous section attempts to make clear, once you release the 
constraint of compatibility, the design space that opens up is large enough 
that it probably requires a standards committee with domain experts to solve. 
Somebody should probably take up this work! But the ASF require a solution in 
the short term for our products.
-
-Compatibility with the GitHub recommendations not only increases the chance 
that their secret scanning programme can detect our submissions with fewer 
false positives, but also closes the design space to a small enough area that 
we get it done quickly without having to consider what makes a design good. 
Trying to make even a _better_ design is a slippery slope, because as sketched 
above there is no clear delimiting line of when _better_ becomes _good enough_ 
even for the ASF. In essence, [...]
-
-(We could certainly start the work and hand it off to a standards 
organisation, or collaborate with others who would like to do the work.)
-
-**Q. Why did we pick an alphabet containing confusable characters?**
-
-A. This was for GitHub compatibility, but only shifts the question to why 
GitHub chose base62. The choice of base62 over base64 is conspicuous, and we 
have not found documentation to suggest their rationale.
-
-A quick experiment, however, suggests that they chose base62 for the same 
reason that they suggest using underscores instead of hyphens in the namespace 
prefix: double click compatibility. The standard extra characters in base64 are 
`+` and `/`, and both of these cause selection segmentation upon double 
clicking a string. Try it:
-
-```text
-abc_pqr (entirely selected)
-abc-pqr (PARTIALLY selected)
-abc+pqr (PARTIALLY selected)
-abc/pqr (PARTIALLY selected)
-```
-
-In other words, they likely started with the baseline of base64, and then 
eliminated the characters that caused a problem with double click 
compatibility. Of course, the question here is not why they eliminated `+` and 
`/` from base64, but why they did not go further and eliminate all confusables.
-
-Confusables need to be eliminated in at least a couple of contexts. One is 
where a string needs to be copied by a human, visually and manually, from one 
medium to another. For example, writing down a token on paper to input it into 
another (potentially airgapped) computer. Or perhaps writing down a URL that 
appears on the side of a bus, which brings us to the second obvious context: 
anywhere that phishing may occur. You do not want one authority to be able to 
impersonate another by using [...]
-
-The second case does not apply to tokens. The first case may do, but there is 
a technology that allows us to at least detect when an error has been made in 
transcription: the checksum. As part of the usage guidelines for tokens, 
therefore, we could require that clients verify the checksum when e.g. added to 
configuration. We should do this even if we used a smaller alphabet without 
confusables, because confusables are not the only reason why a token can be 
mistranscribed: it can also be  [...]
-
-If we were to use a different alphabet, the Bitcoin Core team already studied 
the problem of errors in address strings and designed a format called Bech32 
(in [BIP 0173](https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0173.mediawiki)) 
which has a custom base32 alphabet with as little visual similarity as possible 
based on quantitative data, and a BCH, instead of CRC, based checksum that 
"guarantees detection of any error affecting at most 4 characters". The authors 
wrote an [entire secti [...]
-
-Again, this emphasizes the fact that the design space is a continuous slope. 
Compatibility with the GitHub format is the only reasonable stopping point 
identified so far.
-
-**Q. Why not use `secrets.token_bytes(20)` in the reference implementation?**
-
-A. Because the 2021 GitHub format generates base62 strings by selecting 
characters at random from the base62 alphabet directly. If we securely generate 
160 random bits, and then encode them in a 160.76330038044563 bit encoding (the 
space of 27 base62 digits), what happens to the leftover 0.76330038044563 
encoding space? It goes unused. In the GitHub design, there is no extra 
encoding space left over.
-
-Of course, this design is inconsistent because the CRC-32 checksum is a 32 bit 
space but is being encoded into a 35.72517786232125 bit space, i.e. `log2(62 ** 
6)`, so there's actually far more space left over for the CRC-32 checksum than 
there would have been for the 160 random bits. We would not have chosen this 
inconsistent design, not least because it makes the regular expression match 
values which are impossible to generate. The likelihood of false positives is 
negligible, but it is  [...]
-
-The extra characters allowed in token68 are `"-" / "." / "_" / "~" / "+" / 
"/"`. Unfortunately, as you can test below, only underscore amongst these 
results in a fully selectable string from double clicking:
-
-```text
-abc-pqr
-abc.pqr
-abc_pqr
-abc~pqr
-abc+pqr
-abc/pqr
-```
-
-So it is not possible to fix base64, and hence retain a binary compatible 
encoding space, by substituting `+` and `/` with other characters. In any case, 
we argue that the Bech32 design of BIP 0173 is superior, and is fully 
compatible with token68. When using any base32 encoding, any multiple of 5 bits 
of entropy fits into the encoding without padding. The smallest value meeting 
the common requirement to use at least 128 bits is 130 bits, which is encoded 
as 26 base32 characters, and 160 [...]
-
-**Q. Why use 160 bits of entropy instead of the minimum recommended limit of 
128 bits?**
-
-A. GitHub use 30 characters of base62 data, which is 178.62588931160624 bits, 
i.e. log2(62 ** 30). Interestingly, GitHub say that they want to continue 
increasing the amount of entropy in their tokens beyond this to make them even 
more secure. We would like to know their threat model, because there are only 
two that we know in this space: bad random number generation, and collision 
attacks. Whether requiring more entropy mitigates a broken RNG depends on the 
failure mode of the RNG, but  [...]
-
-The probability of a collision from _k_ tokens securely generated with _n_ 
random bits is `1 - (2**n)! / (2**(k*n) * (2**n - k)!)`. Due to the factorials 
involved, this is usually approximated as `1 - e**(-(k**2)/2**(n+1))`, which we 
can program in Python:
-
-    def probability(k, n):
-        import math
-        exponent = -(k ** 2) / (2 ** (n + 1))
-        return -math.expm1(exponent)
-
-Which, for 65536 tokens of 128 bits gives us the approximated value:
-
-    >>> probability(2 ** 16, 128)
-    6.310887241768095e-30
-
-Which is [also confirmed by 
Wolfram|Alpha](https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=1+-+exp%28-%282%5E16%29%5E2+%2F+%282+*+2%5E128%29%29).
 If you tried to use a hash collision calculator online such as [this 
one](https://kevingal.com/apps/collision.html) or [this other 
one](https://hash-collisions.progs.dev/), you would get the nonsense answer 0, 
and a similar thing happens if you use `math.exp` in Python instead of 
`math.expm1`. Anyway the smallness of 6.310887241768095e-30 is why the stand 
[...]
-
-In summary, it is hard to believe that 130 bits of Bech32 encoded entropy is 
insufficient for all known threat model requirements assuming a secure RNG.
-
-**Q. Why use zlib to provide CRC-32 instead of binascii?**
-
-A. Indeed `binascii` is a mandatory module in Python and `zlib` is not, so 
`binascii` is the better choice.
-
-**Q. Why not use `component.lower() != component` in the reference code?**
-
-A. Because the reference code is testing that the component is in the range 
`a-z`, not that the component is lowercase where letters are used. If 
`component` is `"123"`, for example, then `component.lower() != component` 
evaluates `False`, so the `ValueError` would not be raised, but the component 
is not a subset of `a-z` and so this expression actually lets slip through an 
error that we wanted to detect.
-
-**Q. Why don't we use an underscore before the CRC value too?**
-
-A. For compatibility with the 2021 GitHub format.
-
-**Q. Why not allow TLPs to opt in to this format?**
-
-A. There is no existing policy to stop TLPs from opting in to this format, so 
by default they can already do so, and the same is true for external 
organisations, but the consideration is how to organise the namespace in this 
case. If using a reversed domain name, then the delegation of namespaces is 
already clear within the ASF, and is probably easier for external organisations 
to resolve too. ATR, for example, would likely use `org_apache_releases` as its 
reversed domain name in this se [...]
-
-This, combining elements suggested so far in this FAQ, would result in a 
superior format to the one recommended by GitHub, but can still be improved 
further. The Bech32 checksum, for example, could use domain separation. It 
should also probably include the namespace prefix in some way, potentially 
using the HRP mechanism of Bech32.
-
-**Q. Has Security agreed to act as the registrar?**
-
-A. No. We only propose that they do so, but not only would this be contingent 
on their acceptance, it would also be contingent on whether anybody had a 
better suggestion, not only for the registrar, but for the namespace prefix 
format itself. If, for example, a reversed domain name were used, then that may 
obviate the need for a registrar.
-
-**Q. Why is the reference implementation not in `asfpy.crypto`?**
-
-A. The specification itself should include a reference implementation, but 
that reference implementation can be copied not only to `asfpy.crypto` but also 
to any other code, under the terms of the Apache 2.0 license.
-
-**Q. Why does the draft not have sections on secure token storage practices?**
-
-A. One argument for separating such practices from the specification of 
scannable tokens is that the practices apply to more than just scannable 
tokens. They apply, for example, to session tokens and to passwords. There are 
already ample external recommendations in these areas, but if the ASF codifies 
its own practices, the scannable token specification should link to them. We 
could add a _Security considerations_ section which, in part, could describe 
the challenges of storage.
-
-**Q. Should we mandate that tokens must be stored on the server side salted 
and hashed?**
-
-A. Secrets only need to be salted to guard against rainbow table 
precomputation attacks. It is not possible to precompute values with a high 
probability of matching in a space of 128 bits of entropy. This is why 
passwords are salted before hashing, because they do not necessarily contain 
sufficient entropy to deter precomputation attacks. Therefore the secure tokens 
in our original design, with 160 bits of entropy, or suggested in this FAQ if 
breaking compatibility with the GitHub recomm [...]
-
-Hashing is compatible even with DPoP, because the user sends the token in the 
request along with the proof, but it would prevent being able to reissue the 
token to the user, which may be acceptable. If the user has accidentally 
deleted their token, they should probably just be issued with a new one.
-
-**Q. Can a DPoP token be considered public?**
-
-A. It is reasonable to contend that a DPoP token is actually a public token, 
because bearing the token alone, without a proof of possession of the key (the 
PoP part in "DPoP"), provides no access. Previously, we [suggested that making 
DPoP tokens scannable has advantages 
anyway](https://github.com/apache/tooling-trusted-releases/issues/233#issuecomment-3577574617):
-
-> We need to consider whether we still want to use scannable prefixes if we 
use DPoP tokens instead of bearer tokens (#335). RFC 9449 ยง 2 says that "DPoP 
renders exfiltrated tokens alone unusable", which is true (and not true of an 
exfiltrated DPoP proof, within tight constraints), but we would still like to 
know when tokens, which should remain secret, are accidentally shared in 
public. In other words, a prefix helps not to identify exposure of a DPoP 
token, which cannot be used without [...]
-
-There is an additional advantage not only to making a DPoP token scannable, 
but keeping it secret. When a server verifies a DPoP token, it has to do two 
things: look up the token in the database to ensure it exists and to figure out 
who it's owned by and what its permissions are, and verify the actual proof. 
Depending on which is considered more expensive (the former is mostly disk I/O, 
and the latter is computation and RAM use, so they are hard to compare 
directly), we might want to do  [...]
-
-**Q. How should fine-grained scopes be associated with tokens?**
-
-A. By associating the scopes in the database where the token, or hash of the 
token if using a token scheme where hashes are suitable, is stored.
-
-**Q. What design should we choose?**
-
-A. The main design choice that we need to resolve is whether to be compatible 
with the GitHub recommendations and 2021 token format or not. If we do, then 
the existing draft proposal may already be suitable. If not, then we have to 
choose an alternative. By working through various design issues in this FAQ, we 
have made numerous suggestions that could be used as the basis of such an 
alternative. We would like to add some further suggestions to make the 
alternative proposal even more concrete.
-
-Although starting the token with a reversed domain name helps to delegate 
ownership and avoids collisions, to make the prefix even more unambiguous and 
self documenting a label such as `secret_scannable_` could be prepended. We 
would also like to distinguish the elements somehow, because the reversed 
domain name uses underscore to encode a full stop, but underscore is also used 
to separate the elements. The elements with fixed length could come at the 
start, and the reversed domain name  [...]
-
-Here is an example incorporating these extra suggestions. Note that we only 
use the Bech32 alphabet and checksum, and do not follow the full encoding rules:
-
-    secret_scannable_et70m7m4a8zqhrl6kndwljqnvr_mxyamx_org_example
-
-Which is 62 characters long. The HRP in this case is:
-
-    secret_scannable_org_example
-
-The `secret_scannable_` prefix is 17 characters long, and the Bech32 
specification allows a maximum of 83 characters in the HRP, but the limitation 
here is because the checksum is designed to detect errors in a string up to 89 
characters, which for us includes the 26 characters of the entropy. This means 
that we have space for 89 (total allowed by the checksum) minus 26 (for the 
entropy) minus 17 (for the `secret_scannable_` prefix) characters in the 
reversed domain name, which is 46 cha [...]
-
-Another potentially useful feature of this design is that the reversed domain 
name suffix could be omitted entirely by organisations that are either private 
or do not want to indicate their origin in leaked tokens. In this case the HRP 
could be fixed to `secret_scannable` and the length of the token would always 
be 50 characters.
-
-    secret_scannable_736pxr4jy89nlpelpzjum8lzha_ekyr23
-
-Whether or not to use the GitHub compatible design depends largely on whether 
they implement CRC-32 checking for external submissions.
diff --git a/notes/draft-asf-token-standard.md 
b/notes/draft-asf-token-standard.md
deleted file mode 100644
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@@ -1,114 +0,0 @@
-# ASF standard for scannable secret tokens
-
-[DRAFT STANDARD]
-
-**NOTE: This is an ASF Tooling proposal only. This is not ASF policy.**
-
-## Scope and definitions
-
-This standard defines a common syntax for secret tokens used within 
applications developed by the ASF for the ASF. In other words, it is relevant 
for applications developed by teams including but not limited to Marketing and 
Publicity, Infrastructure, Security, and Tooling. It does not apply to top 
level projects (TLPs). This token syntax is mandatory for all new tokens in 
applications covered by this scope after the date of publication, [DATE OF 
PUBLICATION].
-
-The regular expression syntax used throughout this standard is POSIX Extended 
Regular Expressions as defined in IEEE Std 1003.1-2017 Section 9.4. EREs are 
case sensitive. The base62 alphabet used throughout this standard contains, in 
order, the 62 characters `0-9`, `A-Z`, and `a-z`.
-
-## Purpose
-
-Secret tokens are used by bearers to prove their right to access resources or 
services. They are akin to passwords, but must be transmitted over the network, 
and therefore run the risk of being leaked e.g. by inclusion in configuration 
files or application logs.
-
-In addition to standard procedures to mitigate leaks, one defence in depth 
approach is to structure secret tokens in a standardised way which is amenable 
to automated scanning. Several tools exist for the purpose of such scanning and 
are widely used. This document standardises one universal format for use at the 
ASF within the scope defined in the previous section.
-
-## Requirements
-
-There is no existing universally accepted standard for the syntax of secret 
tokens, but existing secret scanning tools make recommendations with documented 
rationales. These rationales are often relevant to the ASF, and can therefore 
be treated as requirements. There are also some extra ASF specific requirements.
-
-Scannable secret tokens at the ASF must:
-
-* Start with a prefix which acts as an issuer namespace, to allow a direct 
link with a remediation policy.
-* Use `_` rather than `-` as a separator so that double clicking selects the 
whole token in common interfaces.
-* Include a checksum of a significant portion of the rest of the token to 
reduce false positives during scanning.
-* Use a subset of token68 characters (from RFC 9110), i.e. a subset of the 
regular expression `^[A-Za-z0-9._~+/-]+=*$`, to ensure compatibility with DPoP 
(RFC 9449).
-* Include enough secure entropy, measured in bits from a secure random or 
pseudorandom source, to avoid collisions or guessing of issued values.
-* Not exceed common application length bounds, e.g. on the length of header 
field values or storage columns in databases.
-
-## Syntax
-
-ASF scannable secret tokens must match the following regular expression:
-
-    ^asf_([a-z]{3,6})_([0-9A-Za-z]{27})([0-4][0-9A-Za-z]{5})$
-
-With the following constraints:
-
-* The first match group, called the **component**, forms part of the 
namespace, and must not already be allocated. Allocations are tracked and 
approved by the Security team. The allocation process and currently allocated 
values are documented by Security at <[URL]>.
-* Each character in the second match group, the **entropy**, must be generated 
from a secure random or pseudorandom number generator with a uniform 
distribution across all base62 characters permitted in the regular expression.
-* The third match group, the **checksum**, must be the base62 encoded IEEE 
802.3 CRC-32 of the second group, with the most significant digit in base62 
first, using `0` for left padding to six characters. The CRC-32 result 
`0xFFFFFFFF`, for example, is encoded as `4gfFC3`. The CRC-32 is of the actual 
base62 characters, not, for example, a decoded version of the base62 characters 
in binary. It is an invariant that every byte used as input to the CRC-32 
algorithm in this construction is wit [...]
-
-One consequence of these constraints is that the first and second match groups 
allow every possible value permitted by their regular expressions, but the 
third match group does not.
-
-The IEEE 802.3 CRC-32 algorithm uses the reflected polynomial `0xEDB88320`, 
initial value `0xFFFFFFFF`, and final XOR with `0xFFFFFFFF`.
-
-The complete token length can vary between 41 and 44 characters depending on 
the chosen component length.
-
-## Rationale
-
-We use 27 characters from the base62 alphabet because that is the minimum 
equivalent to at least 160 bits, and because this follows a convention set by 
GitHub.
-
-    >>> import math
-    >>> math.log2(62 ** 27)
-    160.76330038044563
-
-ASVS v5.0.0 criteria 7.2.3 and 11.5.1 require at least 128 bits of entropy for 
tokens and unguessable values respectively. One motivation for using slightly 
over 160 bits, in addition to following the convention set by GitHub, is that 
it prevents implementers from using 128 bit UUIDs as a source of "randomness" 
for the syntax defined in this specification; no existing UUID version contains 
128 bits of entropy, and some contain far less. Using just over 160 bits 
instead of just over 128 b [...]
-
-We use base62 to follow a convention set by GitHub.
-
-We use IEEE 802.3 CRC-32 because that algorithm is recommended by GitHub in 
their recipe for "high quality, identifiable secrets".
-
-The regular expression for our syntax is a subset of the token68 production, 
and therefore compatible with DPoP.
-
-Six digits in base62 are enough to express the entire range of CRC-32 values, 
because `(2 ** 32) < (62 ** 6)`.
-
-    >>> (2 ** 32) < (62 ** 6)
-    True
-
-Because the maximum value of a CRC-32, `0xFFFFFFFF`, is encoded by this 
specification as `4gfFC3`, no base62 encoded checksums beyond that value can be 
generated. One consequence is that the leading base62 digit must be in the 
range `0-4`, and this is reflected in the regular expression. Further 
constraints to the regular expression would be possible, but the chosen 
constraint level balances accuracy with concision.
-
-## Sample generator code
-
-    def asf_secret_token(component: str) -> str:
-        import secrets
-        import zlib
-        lower = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"
-        if len(component) not in (3, 4, 5, 6):
-            raise ValueError("Component must be between 3 and 6 letters")
-        if not (set(component) <= set(lower)):
-            raise ValueError("Component must use lowercase letters only")
-        alphabet = "0123456789" + lower.upper() + lower
-        entropy = "".join(secrets.choice(alphabet) for _ in range(27))
-        n = zlib.crc32(entropy.encode("ascii"))
-        checksum = ""
-        for _ in range(6):
-            n, rem = divmod(n, 62)
-            checksum = alphabet[rem] + checksum
-        return f"asf_{component}_{entropy}{checksum}"
-
-## Sample generated tokens
-
-These values must not be used in any application. The `sample` component will 
be registered by Security as the first known component, and can be used for 
documentation examples where an arbitrary component is suitable.
-
-    asf_sample_mXBgIOwUcV44oJElFX4LCMhWkEs2gaLe2
-    asf_sample_63Uo76APFVkmVyTpHpi3W7zlmxJ1dGuWP
-    asf_sample_PfCdJHSP5C8vM4hkQRMImIzAFm90LW1gM
-
-## Test vectors
-
-    Entropy:  000000000000000000000000000
-    CRC-32:   0x816710BC
-    Checksum: 2MvMGi
-    Token:    asf_sample_0000000000000000000000000002MvMGi
-
-    Entropy:  zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
-    CRC-32:   0x39DF34DC
-    Checksum: 13hv5A
-    Token:    asf_sample_zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz13hv5A
-
-## Detection guidance
-
-To detect tokens, the regular expression presented in the Syntax section above 
can be used alone, without anchoring, as a heuristic with a high probability of 
matches. For better prevention of false positives in detection, the suffix 
matching the CRC-32 can be validated. Components can also be validated against 
the list maintained by Security.


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