Re: [PROPOSED WORK ITEM] ECDSA Secp384r1 Cryptosuite v2019

On 1/24/22 9:41 AM, Orie Steele wrote:
> It's likely that secp384r proposal you are making is redundant to both multikey-2021 and jws-2020

The multikey spec, as it is currently specified, is a security footgun and
kitchen sink specification.

JWS-2020, as it is currently specified, is acceptable (if one accepts the
security dangers with accidentally mixing up the keys/parameters/algorithms in
JWS -- which has been a source of security vulnerabilities). JWS-2020 also
requires the usage of the JOSE stack where the currently proposed
specification does not.

> to justify the switching cost to lazy developers

We should not be optimizing a security solution towards laziness. We should be
optimizing so the system fails closed when bad inputs are provided (instead of
the proposals you mention above, which run the risk of failing open when bad
inputs are provided).

> a standard that can only represent a subset will always
> lose out to a standard that can represent the full set.

Debatable... do you have a citation?

> a community draft that does not define the private key
> representations. I can see one for multibase proposals,
> I strongly object to standardizing public key only
> representations.

Again, debatable... citation? This is also an orthogonal debate, and is your
(well understood) opinion. Some of us just have a different opinion.

We should note that the purpose of the work item is to ensure that some
variation of secp384r1 is in scope for discussion in VCWG 2.0. Blocking our
ability to put the discussion in scope in the VCWG does not seem like a sound
strategy.

It's worth pointing out that the CCG has historically been fine with running
multiple work items that might conflict (at a philosophical level) with one
another (such as Ed25519Signature2020 /and/ JWS-2020). The place to debate and
narrow down the final technical solution is in the VCWG, not in an incubating
body such as the CCG.

-- manu

-- 
Manu Sporny - https://www.linkedin.com/in/manusporny/
Founder/CEO - Digital Bazaar, Inc.
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Received on Monday, 24 January 2022 16:11:21 UTC