Terry:
A general rule of thumb: sign before compress.
Another general rule of thumb: sign before encrypt.
There are exceptions to both rules. However, the idea is to sign what you
say, not what you transmit. In the compression context, the exception may
arise when the content is huge and there is a large difference between the
following:
Hash( Compress( content ) )
Compress( Hash( content ) )
In this situation, you ought to consider application context and the reason
for the signature. For example, if an arbitrator is going to resolve any
dispute, and that arbitrator understands the compression and signature
technologies, then either order is okay.
Russ
At 03:25 PM 2/25/2002 -0700, Terry Harding wrote:
All,
Does the S/MIME group have a preference on the order of operations when
signing and compressing a S/MIME
message when using the compressed data content type for cms.
Should compression occur before signing or should signing occur before
compression or maybe it does not matter.
Any guidance by the S/MIME group would be greatly appreciated.
Terry Harding
Cyclone Commerce