Thank you for your reply and links.

> It is **coincidentally** a serialized public key with DHKEM.

How do I produce a "serialized public key" as an "opaque byte string" given
a public key in JWK / COSE_Key format, say for example I already have a
P-256 Public Key....?

In the case of P-256 for example, does HPKE assume a compressed or not
compressed public key for the "opaque byte string".

Thanks in advance,

Regards,

OS

On Wed, Sep 28, 2022 at 12:59 PM Richard Barnes <[email protected]> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> It was brought to my attention that this working group is considering
> representing the "enc" output of HPKE as a COSE_Key as opposed to an opaque
> byte string [1].
>
> This is a category error and a bad idea.  HPKE defines the encapsulated
> key to be a byte string.  It is **coincidentally** a serialized public key
> with DHKEM.  All the HPKE libraries I could find correctly produce an
> opaque byte string for the "enc" output:
>
> Reference implementation:
> https://github.com/cisco/go-hpke/blob/master/hpke.go#L382
> Chrome/BoringSSL:
> https://boringssl.googlesource.com/boringssl/+/refs/heads/master/include/openssl/hpke.h#213
> Firefox/NSS:
> https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/source/security/nss/lib/pk11wrap/pk11hpke.c#41
> Webex/MLSpp:
> https://github.com/cisco/mlspp/blob/main/lib/hpke/include/hpke/hpke.h#L198
>
> Representing the "enc" output as anything other than opaque bytes is a
> mistake.  It would require the COSE implementation to parse the "enc"
> output, causing a bunch of unnecessary work and inviting error.  (If you
> want to represent it as opaque bytes plus some metadata, sure.  But   But
> don't parse it.)
>
> I'm not sure which of the chairs' options that maps to, but both the
> COSE_Key and Ilari's OKP proposal look incorrect to me, because they both
> imply that the value is a key.  I think Daisuke Ajitomi's proposal is
> closer to correct. In any case, I hope this helps clear things up.
>
> --Richard
>
> [1]
> https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/msg/cose/qzYaUCkogRSt53A3oCaTe-IwQDI/
> _______________________________________________
> COSE mailing list
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> https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/cose
>


-- 
*ORIE STEELE*
Chief Technical Officer
www.transmute.industries

<https://www.transmute.industries>
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