Earlier this month I proposed an interoperability testing meeting for
OpenPGP. A number of people have responded they are interested in
participating, and I've given some more thought to what we want to
accomplish. Rod Thayer and I had the opportunity to discuss it
further today, and a plan is beginning to take shape.
The OpenPGP Oven-Cooking Competition (in deference to a local
Minneapolis company who feels another name impinges their reputation)
is intended to test compliance with 2440 in a variety of scenarios.
I'll provide a compliance matrix for the 2440 requirements that
implementers can use as a guide. The matrix will be reviewed both by
Rod and by Jon Callas to make sure I haven't missed anything
important, or misstated anything. And, of course, it will be
published to this list as soon as possible for your review. Uses of
OpenPGP we anticipate testing are PGP/MIME, TLS over OpenPGP, and
IPSec over OpenPGP. We'll verify interoperation of key generation,
signing and verification. We're considering ways to verify key
server interoperability. However, there are no published protocols
for this. So I'm not sure what we can accomplish in this area. We'd
like to test implementations of the AES algorithms, as well as the
mandated algorithms in 2440. Execution speed isn't nearly as
important as correct execution of the protocols and underlying
algorithms. But bear in mind that I don't expect the meeting to last
more than 2 days. <grin>
Rod will create a more detailed test plan which we'll publish for
comments on the list. I'd like to aim at holding the Oven-Cooking
Competition sometime during June or July so that we can publish our
status on 2440 in time for the London meeting. Some people have
indicated they won't be able to participate in person, so one of the
things I'll arrange is a means for people to also test remotely.
However, I want to emphasize how valuable face-to-face meetings are
for interoperability testing. We'll be able to solve problems
interactively, and discover issues that otherwise may take a long
time to surface.
These are my general goals for the meeting. Please comment and offer
suggestions. That's the best way to insure this little confab serves
your needs as implementers and users of OpenPGP.
--
john noerenberg
jwn2(_at_)qualcomm(_dot_)com
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Peace of mind isn't at all superficial, really. It's the whole thing.
That which produces it is good maintenance; that which disturbs it
is poor maintenance.
-- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert M. Pirsig, 1974
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