----- Original Message -----
From: "Stephen Farrell" <[email protected]>
To: "The IESG" <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2015 10:09 AM


> Stephen Farrell has entered the following ballot position for
> draft-ietf-opsawg-hmac-sha-2-usm-snmp-06: Discuss
>
> The document, along with other ballot positions, can be found here:
>
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-opsawg-hmac-sha-2-usm-snmp/
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> DISCUSS:
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Thanks for defining these. I do have a thing do briefly
> discuss before balloting yes. I'll be getting out of your way
> very shortly, but I want to check first to see if you agree
> with me that this could be simpler and more useful.
>
> I note the following:
>
> - You're defining a bunch of HMAC options.
> - Additional options for fun isn't a good idea with crypto.
> - There may be platforms that do not have good APIs for
>   SHA224 or SHA384.
> - HMAC-SHA256 without any truncation is considered perfectly
>   fine for this purpose and is widely used elsewhere.
> - You don't need truncation for protocol reasons.
>
> To me, that implies that this would be better if it *only*
> defined a non-truncated HMAC-SHA256 option and if all of the
> rest were removed.
>
> Do you agree that doing so would achieve just as much of a
> security improvement, but with less complexity for
> implementation, test and interop? If so, should we just do
> that?
>

Stephen,

This was raised prior to adoption by OPSAWG, advice was sought and Uri
Blumenthal said, 23 Sep 14

"
I am for HMAC truncation.
"
and
"
There probably is no doubt that protocols based on SHA-256 and SHA-384
need to be there. SHA-512 might cause some raised brows, as could
SHA-224.
I still would add them - SHA-512 as SHOULD, and SHA-224 as MAY.
"
which convinced me to support the current position.  (At one stage, the
list was even longer:-).

Tom Petch

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