ietf-smime
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RE: SignatureAlgorithmIdentifiers

1998-07-10 14:38:50
-----Original Message-----
From: Russ Housley [mailto:housley(_at_)spyrus(_dot_)com]
Sent: Friday, July 10, 1998 5:51 AM
To: ietf-smime(_at_)imc(_dot_)org
Subject: Re: SignatureAlgorithmIdentifiers

I propose that sha-1WithRSAEncryption be used with RSA and 
SHA-1.  This
combination is not deployed in any product that I am aware 
of, so there is
not an issue with backward compatability.  PKIX Part 1 uses
sha-1WithRSAEncryption for certificate signatures with RSA and SHA-1. 

Several products use sha-1 as a digest algorithm identifier and
rsaEncryption as a digest encryption / protection algorithm identifier
(Worldtalk WorldSecure Client, Microsoft Outlook Express, Netscape
Messenger are three -- I have messages for other vendors also, but these
are the important ones.  Well, I think they're important).

So the bottom line seems to be:

If we use the same OIDs used in PKIX for certificate signatures, it
makes it easier for implementors, but it could affect backwards
compatibility.

Blake
--
Blake C. Ramsdell
Worldtalk Corporation
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