ietf-dkim
[Top] [All Lists]

[ietf-dkim] RE: How MALLET PERFORMS a DOWNGRADE ATTACK

2006-08-03 07:06:31
From: Stephen Farrell 
[mailto:stephen(_dot_)farrell(_at_)cs(_dot_)tcd(_dot_)ie] 

Alice also had the option of sequentially signing if she 
considers one alg better than the other.

Think it through, does not work, Mallet can still spoof because there is no way 
for Alice to say expect the sequential signature.

Mallet can create a complete forgery with ZSA.

Without policy language support anyone who advertises a less supported 
algorithm is open to spoofing.


Alice MUST have a way to state "I always sign with BOTH ZSA 
AND RSA2048".

Sure - invent an "zsaandrsa2048" algorithm:-) Bit I don't see 
the reason for the MUST, since this only affects a Bob who's 
happy with rsa2048, and who is therefore vulnerable to 
whatever problems exist for that algorithm regardless of 
Alice's policy.

Bob does not see the RSA2048. Mallet only includes a fake sig for ZSA.


In effect the lack of the AND policy statement means that 
it will never be possible to upgrade to a new algorithm 
without rendering the policy specification void. 

There may or may not be a need for a separate AND construct 
but that's another layer of detail.

No, has to be in base.


If you could state an advantage in terms of collision-dodgy 
signature/hash algorithms then maybe it'd convince folks more.
(Or, maybe not, we'll see.)

And again - you've not said what's new here that causes us to 
end up with a different answer about this compared to when 
the WG considered it for base? (Or maybe you did and I missed it;-)

We are discussing the policy issue, not base.


_______________________________________________
NOTE WELL: This list operates according to 
http://mipassoc.org/dkim/ietf-list-rules.html

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>