On Sun, Jul 02, 2023 at 06:10:59PM +0000, lgl island-resort.com wrote:
> Here’s the improved description of IDs used that I promised with a new 
> summary at the end
> 
> COSE_Key
> A single algorithm identifier from the same space used by
> COSE_Sign1…COSE_Recipient plus a curve identifier for EC some keys.
> While the alg here is optional, it is a fact that it is a singe alg
> ID that is unified with all the above.

It is only unified with the innermost one. 

 
> Summary
> - COSE aggregates into a single identifier for each major structure
>   like COSE_Encrypt or COSE_Recipient

However, it composes those.


> - Sometimes COSE aggregates the EC curve ID and sometimes the curve ID
>   comes from the key

I think the aggeration is only for one special snowflake (ES256K).


> - While COSE and JOSE don’t use complete ciphersuites they never
>   disaggregates the way HPKE does

The result of composition can pretty much be disaggregation to similar
level than in HPKE:

Suppose you have a x448 key, and want to do ECDH-ES with it at
nominal strength.

Single-recipient setting:

1) The key specifies type 1 / subtype 5.
2) The only alg is -26.
3) Bulk cipher can be 3 or 24.

This seems like similar three-way split as in HPKE.


Multi-recipient setting:

1) The key specifies type 1 / subtype 5.
2) The only alg is -26.
3) Key wrap has to be -5 (however, 3 and 24 could be interpretted as
   allowed[1]).
4) Bulk cipher is 3 (or 24 if that could be used for key wrap

This is four-way split, similar as in HPKE performing key wrap.



[1] There is mechanism called iv-generation. It is only documented in
conjunction with "Direct Key with KDF"[2], but I see no technical
reason it would not work with "Direct ECDH". It would unlock using
AES-GCM/Chacha20-Poly1305 for key wrap (of course, no existing
implementation supports that).


[2] As aside, that can be used to construct a situation that actually
uses "Enc_Recipient".




-Ilari

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