Re: block encryption algorithm padding

r/reagle@w3.org/2002.04.12/16:01:21
>On Thursday 11 April 2002 14:26, Aleksey Sanin wrote:
>> As I said before from my point of vew the current proposed padding makes
>> XML Enc non-interop with RFC1423 and from my expirience it makes
>> harder to follow XML Enc standard for implementors.
>
>Aside from questions of myth, what an RFC means, and who knows Ron Rivest 
>(he's a couple offices down from me but I fear it doesn't rub off on me! 
><smile/>), I think the simple issue is we already have interop over what 
>has been specified and it's hard to break that without a consensus of what 
>was specified is broken. In this case, the non-interop with RFC1423 is a 
>fact, but we didn't have a requirement to use that and we had reasons 
>for not using it. I'm open to a parenthetical comment in the spec to this 
>point if it's likely to be a surprise to others. And the fact that it isn't 
>common in the libraries you are using is unfortunate but remediable.
>
>I've documented the issue in [1] and will mark it closed unless there's an 
>objection that it should stay open to consideration by the Director when I 
>request document advancement.
>
>[1] http://www.w3.org/Encryption/2001/11/last-call-issues.html#CandidateREC

The fact that we don't use PKCS#5 padding does add a tiny bit of
complexity, but it is trivial to solve. I also don't think the
argument that padding adds predictability is in any way applicable;
common uses of xmlenc will probably involve highly predictable text
(e.g., "<CreditCard..."). CBC mode and a random IV protects us against
dictionary attacks; otherwise, an extra bit of padding predictability just
doesn't harm us any more. I do think it is a pity that we don't support
transforms on the ciphertext; a compression transform could address this
problem. However, I know that this was discussed and discarded very early.

Merlin


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Received on Friday, 12 April 2002 16:34:08 UTC