I would strongly suggest that we make SHA-256 the MUST on the signer
side for interop and SHA-1 a MAY.

>From a S&M (Should & Must) perspective it is not logical to have a
SHOULD on the signer side. If we are requiring all verifiers to support
SHA-256 there is no logical necessity for SHA-1 support.

In principle I could build a 'zero config' email signer/sender box that
hooks into the infrastructure via DNS SRV and acquires its crypto keys
through XKMS-ACC or similar. I would not want to support SHA1 on that
box if it means an unnecessary configuration parameter.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Hector Santos [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
> Sent: Friday, February 24, 2006 3:57 PM
> To: Hallam-Baker, Phillip; John R Levine; Eliot Lear
> Cc: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: [ietf-dkim] agenda item on upgrading hash algorithms?
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Hallam-Baker, Phillip" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: "John R Levine" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Eliot Lear" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Cc: <[email protected]>
> Sent: Friday, February 24, 2006 2:52 PM
> Subject: RE: [ietf-dkim] agenda item on upgrading hash algorithms?
> 
> 
> > The reason people are pushing for SHA-256 now is not 
> because there is 
> > a probable imminent break. It is because we know just how long the 
> > process of switching algorithms takes.
> 
> I agree.
> 
> > I think that the consenus here is to:
> >
> > 1) Start the SHA-256 transition now, making it a MUST for 
> verifiers, 
> > MUST/SHOULD for signers.
> 
> My only take here is that this MUST/SHOULD for signers will 
> always be tagged with a basic implementation question of
> 
>    "well, which one should I use?"
> 
> So I think it should be carefully phrase to say:
> 
>     SIGNERS "SHOULD" use the highest form of security first among the
>     choices currently available {SHA-1, SHA-256}.  Although it is out
>     of the scope of this specification, an SIGNER "MAY" use a
>     VERIFIER lookup concept to determine the highest form of
>     security it offers.
> 
> This helps or resolves both issues and addresses the future, 
> especially the case if indeed when a method is hacked and 
> DKIM signer wishes to quickly migrate to a new method as 
> supported by the validators. In my view, it is almost 
> inevitiable, the signer will need to be a lot smarter than 
> the documentation calls for. i.e. find out more about the 
> host system it is about to send a "valuable" mail to.
> 
> --
> Hector Santos, Santronics Software, Inc.
> http://www.santronics.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 

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