Hal writes:
Date: Thu, 28 May 1998 11:50:06 -0700
From: Hal Finney <hal(_at_)rain(_dot_)org>
To: jon(_at_)pgp(_dot_)com
Subject: Re: Notation subpacket lengths
Jon - Unfortunately the signature packet retains a vestige of two
byte lengths:
The body of a version 4 Signature Packet contains:
- One-octet version number (4).
- One-octet signature type.
- One-octet public key algorithm.
- One-octet hash algorithm.
**** - Two-octet scalar octet count for following hashed subpacket
data.
- Hashed subpacket data. (zero or more subpackets)
**** - Two-octet scalar octet count for following unhashed subpacket
data.
- Unhashed subpacket data. (zero or more subpackets)
- Two-octet field holding left 16 bits of signed hash value.
- One or more multi-precision integers comprising the signature.
This portion is algorithm specific, as described above.
It was a big mistake to do this but at the time we weren't anticipating
large signatures. Despite several people reviewing the design no one
caught this.
The only solution I see is to define a V5 signature packet format.
Hal