ietf-openpgp
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Re: Another draft is going out

2000-10-11 02:05:38
Hi,

now that it has been decided on AES I suggest to change:

9.2. Symmetric Key Algorithms
[...] 
"Implementations MUST implement Triple-DES. Implementations SHOULD
implement IDEA and CAST5.  Implementations MAY implement any other
algorithm."

by

"Implementations MUST implement Triple-DES. Implementations SHOULD
implement CAST5 and AES 128bit.  Implementations MAY implement any other
algorithm.  To allow backward compatibilty with PGP2 IDEA SHOULD be
implemented."

I dropped IDEA because I don't see a reason to support that patented
algorithm anymore - now that there is another well analyzed new
algorithm available.  

Another point:

If the use of the MDC packet is not required for at least the modern
ciphers (w/o the feature packet), we should at least add a note that
"An implementation SHOULD issue a warning if one of the new[1] cipher
algorithms is used without the MDC packet".  

[1] new:  Either explictly list old algorithms or say that new
algorithms are those with a blocklength other than 64 bit.


  Werner


-- 
Werner Koch                             GnuPG key:  621CC013
OpenIT GmbH                             http://www.OpenIT.de

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