Editorial comments - W3C Candidate Recommendation 11 December 2014

Hi,
It's great to see progress on WebCrypto. Here are a few comments based
on a non-cryptographers reading of the document.
Regards,
David

1. Introduction

Includes: "the API provides interfaces for key generation, key
derivation, key import and export, and key discovery" but it doesn't
appear to me that the specification provides for "key discovery".

4.3. Operations

This section is confusing, contradictory, and I don't think backed up by
the rest of the document. I *think* it's trying to say:

"Although the API does not expose the notion of cryptographic providers
or modules, each key is internally bound to an algorithm and usage, so
web applications can be confident that a given key will only be used for
the correct set of cryptographic operations."

5.1. Underlying Cryptographic Implementation

The first paragraph doesn't aid understanding of the specification, and
is over-complex. It could be replaced by something simpler eg "This
specification allows for cryptographic operations to be implemented
separately from the user agent, through the use of existing APIs and
modules."

Similarly, paragraphs 3 and 4 could be removed entirely, or otherwise
substantially simplified.

Received on Monday, 15 December 2014 08:57:07 UTC