ietf-dkim
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Re: [ietf-dkim] Supporting alternate algorithms

2006-02-22 11:36:51

On Feb 22, 2006, at 9:35 AM, Dave Crocker wrote:

Well, it's not *exactly* it: there's still SHA-1. Two upgrades in the space of a few years is going to be painful. Maybe inevitable, but still painful.

DKIM's base spec already has a mechanism that supports alternate algorithms.

Are there any changes to the mechanism that anyone is suggesting?

There are two serious issues this problem raises with respect to the current mechanism. A default and MUST accept SHA-1 in the key would be one, where typically the hash is only expressed within the message. The use of the TXT RR also precludes an upgrade to the use of 2048 bit keys. There is a simple and immediate remedy for this problem. Rather than adopting the TXT record and expecting defaults are okay, both issues are resolved by adopting the use of RFC2538 RR. This would allow both a binary image of the public key which saves 90 bytes of DNS payload. At the same time, this RR record also explicitly specifies the algorithms by indexing into an industry standardized list rather than attempting to express these textually where there is insufficient space for doing so. In short, the currently proposed mechanism for changing algorithms needs to be fix.

For an example of this RR being used to obtain the public keys for OpenPGP, here are some related links:
http://josefsson.org/cks-dns/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/cks/

-Doug
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