Mike,
Thanks again for weighing in. As you're not opposed to the proposal, I
will go ahead and move forward with this plan.
I will put out an updated webrev with the new approach once it is ready.
Thanks,
Jason
On 1/29/15 3:56 PM, Michael StJohns wrote:
At 03:41 PM 1/29/2015, Jason Uh wrote:
Mike,
Thanks for your feedback.
I'll be changing this fix to introduce new algorithm Strings to specify the
P1363 format. These strings will be of the form:
<digest>with<encryption>in<format>Format
For example:
SHA1withDSAinP1363Format
SHA1withECDSAinP1363Format
Hmm... hadn't gotten that far.
I think that would work, but its not quite right as in this case its about
format, but might be about some other twiddle ( say endianess) for other
specifications. If would be nice if the convention applied to more than ECDSA
and DSA. I'm not opposed to the proposal though.
My counter proposal would be for <algorithm>[/<specification>] as the naming
convention. With the general contract that all implementations of <algorithm> share the
same general math at least for KeyAgreement and Signature but may not share the same concrete
representations or encodings (e.g. there's difference in the encoding of the shared secret output
from DH for TLS vs pretty much everything else - has to do with the integer to octet string
conversion). Again, not opposed to the naming convention you suggested, just trying to think in
meta terms.
Mike
The intent is to reduce potential confusion with the extended algorithm Strings specifying MGF functions
(<digest>with<encryption>and<mgf>) by using the word "in" for conjunction and to append
"Format" to the format name.
Would you be ok with this solution?
Thanks,
Jason
On 1/29/15 7:27 AM, Sean Mullan wrote:
On 01/27/2015 05:40 PM, Michael StJohns wrote:
So what I'm concerned with is surprise. I'm also concerned with
"default signature formats" from new providers. Right now, I know if
I ask for ECDSA, the output of Signature will be in a very specific
format, and the math will match what's in FIPS 186-4, X9.62 and SECG.
I'm really uncomfortable about changing that. I think the algorithm
name should map to one specific suite of math and input/output
formats.
Yes, your argument makes sense, and we will change the fix to use new
algorithm Strings that specify the P1363 format. Jason will be following
up with more details on that.
Thanks for weighing in on this issue and spending the time to explain
your concerns.
--Sean
