RE: Encrypting the IV - again. Was: Re: nonce length

On Wed, 30 Jan 2002, Christian Geuer-Pollmann wrote:

> That's right. If the application has the requirement for integrity,
> XML Signature SHOULD be used. Encrypting the IV does not guarantee the
> integrity, it's not signcryption. I never promised that. But - shall
> we really use some sub-optimal solution? Transfer the IV unencrypted
> even if the vulnerabilities are obvious? I'd say no!

	I'd say yes. Consider the following observation:

 * If the user IS concerned about integrity then a MAC or digital
   signature must be used because an encrypted IV is not sufficient.
   So the encryption of the IV will be extra work that gains the user
   nothing -- they're already getting a much better integrity guarantee
   from their MAC or signature.

 * If the user IS NOT concerned about integrity then the encryption
   of the IV is extra work that gains the user nothing (because they
   don't care about integrity).

Any way I look at it it seems to me that encrypting the IV is superfluous.

-- fritz

Received on Wednesday, 30 January 2002 19:07:00 UTC