At 7:48 PM -0700 8/7/97, Adam Shostack wrote:
Jonathan Wienke wrote:
| Instead of having a 1-byte cipher identifier, I would like to see a 4 byte
| text identifier for ciphers and hashes, so IDEA could be designated by
| "IDEA", triple-DES by "3DES", SHA-1 by "SHA1", etc. This would make it much
| easier for PGP to support numerous algorithms, and multiple encryption.
| Perhaps each algorithm could be implemented as a plug-in, so that
| encrypting a message with triple-DES, IDEA, and then something cooked up in
| your basement would be easily implemented.
|
And RIPEMD-160 would be indicated how? Having length byte, text field
may well be overkill. So I'd suggest that a one byte ID with
everything in an include file makes writing code easier, and doesn't
need to change the presentation.
As much a fan of 4 byte identifiers as I am, I agree with Adam here.
We aren't going to see 2 billion or so cipher ids.
However, I can envision a day when we have more than 256 cipher IDs.
Two bytes, please (or octets, if you prefer)
-- Marshall
Marshall Clow Aladdin Systems
<mailto:mclow(_at_)mailhost2(_dot_)csusm(_dot_)edu>
"In Washington DC, officials from the White House, federal agencies and
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system." -- CommunicationsWeek International April 21, 1997