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Re(2): A draft ASN.1 module for Cryptographic Message Syntax

1997-11-21 05:13:58
Russ,

I think that you have not understood my ASN.1

We have
presiousley agreed that backward compatibility with PKCS#7 version 1.5 is
highly desirable.  This aproach is different than PKCS#7 version 1.5.

My original draft module contained ASN.1 which I intended and still believe to 
be 100% "bits on the wire identical" to PKCS#7 version 1.5 in its definition of 
signatureValue.  If you believe that the original module fails to achieve this 
intention then please identify where you think it fails.

It was John Pawling who was arguing that the signatureValue was only required 
to be compatible for RSA signatures. My revised proposal retains the "100% bits 
on the wire identical to PKCS#7 version 1.5" objective in its definition of 
RSASignatureValue.


We can argue all day about the depth we want to go to define the syntax.

If the syntax of the object on which the signature is computed is ill-defined 
then there is considerable scope for different implementors making different 
assumptions about it, resulting in interworking failures. In the current draft 
of CMS that syntax is not defined at all!

Jim