On Mon, May 08, 2006 at 02:52:30PM -0700, Jon Callas wrote:
In section 9.3. Compression Algorithms, suggest adding:
Algorithm 0, "uncompressed," may only be used to denote a
preference for uncompressed data in the preferred compression
algorithms subpacket (section 5.2.3.9). Implementations MUST NOT
use uncompressed in Compressed Data Packets.
(We had the same problem with using cipher algorithm 0 in encrypted
data packets, and made that MUST NOT as well)
I want to quibble over this one.
The reason we don't allow 0 in encrypted packets is because we don't
want to have "encrypted" data. It's a security reason. There's no
security reason here. While it's perhaps stupid to make a compressed
packet that has no compression (you could just have a literal
packet), there is no *security* reason to object to it.
Also, there's no particular code reason to object to it, either; you
have to handle the case, and rather than error out, why not just
proceed?
You're right. It's better left out.
David