References: <199604251344(_dot_)JAA27348(_at_)jekyll(_dot_)piermont(_dot_)com>
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Date: Thu, 25 Apr 1996 22:07:48 -0700
To: Ian Duncan <id(_at_)cc(_dot_)mcgill(_dot_)ca>, "Perry E. Metzger"
<perry(_at_)piermont(_dot_)com>
From: "John W. Noerenberg" <jwn2(_at_)qualcomm(_dot_)com>
Subject: Re: Last Call: MIME Security with Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) to
Proposed Standard
Cc: ietf(_at_)CNRI(_dot_)Reston(_dot_)VA(_dot_)US
At 11:19 AM -0400 4/25/96, Ian Duncan wrote:
But to expand slightly since you seem to have missed it, in essence the
protocol design significantly depricates the MIME/SIG-ENC foundation
in favour of the native PGP data structures which profoundly limits the
potential for use within the Internet message realm. This is fixable and
should be fixed. I don't believe that fundemental issues of this sort can
or should be repaired here inside the last call period.
Ian, there are a couple of reasons I'm in favor of the draft as written:
1) Even tho' neither S/MIME nor PGP separate signatures from enclosures as
you advocate, it does preserve the MIME structure simplifying the work of
UAs that need to parse the structure.
Current implementations may not take full advantage of the MIME structure
today, but they could in the future. Unless we do it this way, there would
be no possibility of for two leading contenders for encryption applications
to evolve to a better model.
2) Because the sub-parts are not leaves it makes it recursive parses more
easily implementable. /app/pgp or /app/x-pkcs7 are special cases that
parsers would have to handle. Special cases are almost always a source for
trouble in debugging and maintaining code.
As an implementor, I appreciate anything that can make my job easier.
john noerenberg
jwn2(_at_)qualcomm(_dot_)com
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