At 9:13 AM -0400 6/28/01, Housley, Russ wrote:
As many of you know, I am arguing for a common set of cryptographic 
algorithms throughout the IETF Security Area.  Having each CMS 
referee specify their own set of algorithms does not support this 
objective.
What do others think?
Russ is right on a technical front: the IETF should use a common set. 
It is now looking better that this might happen, given that the TLS 
folks are going to use RSA with OEAP for AES ciphers.
On a political front, this is going to be a long battle. The IETF 
security area takes forever to act on things that they have agreed 
to; for instance, IPsec still mandates DES (not TripleDES) years 
after our self-congratulatory pronouncements about changing. There is 
very little cross-pollination in the security area, as shown by the 
TLS debate.
It is worth a shot, but don't expect success.
--Paul Hoffman, Director
--Internet Mail Consortium