Re: Netscape

[Jeff Weinstein <jsw@netscape.com>]

Raph Levien wrote:
> 
> Jeff Weinstein wrote:
> >
> > Lucky Green wrote:
> > >
> > > At 13:38 7/22/96, Tom Weinstein wrote:
> > >
> > > >Yes, and that's what we're trying to do.  Get strong crypto in the hands
> > > >of as many people as we can.  I can hardly wait until we get S/MIME in.
> > >
> > > What will Netscape do to about the 40bit RC-2 default and the signatures on
> > > the outside of the encryption envelope design flaws in S/MIME? I can't
> > > imagine Netscape releasing software that has these two properties.
> >
> >   If you know that the recipient can read a message encrypted with
> > 3DES, IDEA, or RC2-128, then you can send the message using one of
> > these strong algorithms.  Given that you need someones public key
> > to send them a message, there are several obvious ways to transmit
> > information about what algorithms they accept along with it.
> 
>    Yes, we all know that. But which one will Netscape actually _do_?
> 
>    If there's one thing we've learned from PGP, it's that configuration
> and per-user key management are killers. The reason why I'm so excited
> about Netscape is that you guys have the _possibility_ to really get
> strong crypto to the masses. Whether you really do that or not is in
> your hands.
> 
>    I've made a proposal for solving the 40-bit protocol failure in
> S/MIME. There are other proposals out there too, with various strengths
> and weaknesses. The main advantage of mine is that it requires no
> additional infrastructure - i.e. VeriSign does not have to start
> including algorithm preferences in the DigitalID's they distribute.

  I don't like the fact that your proposal ties the size of the
bulk encryption key to the size of the public modulus.  There
are legitimate reasons why someone might choose to have a 512
bit modulus even though they prefer longer bulk encryption keys.
Your heuristic would be a good fallback in the absence of more
reliable information.  

  There is another method that does not require verisign or other
CAs to add key size extensions to their certs.  We can define
a new authenticated attribute that gets included in Signed-Data
and Signed-And-Enveloped-Data messages that indicates the
user's key size and algorithm preference.  This has the advantage
that the preference is selected and signed by the user.  This
method was discussed at the S/MIME meeting in January at the
RSA Crypto conference.  I'm a bit surprised that it never
got into the Implementation Guide.  I'll make sure that
we bring it up on the smime list again.

  What we finally implement will probably be a combination of
the three methods, with the user's selection taking precedence
over the CAs selection, which takes precedence over the
heuristic based on modulus size.

	--Jeff

-- 
Jeff Weinstein - Electronic Munitions Specialist
Netscape Communication Corporation
jsw@netscape.com - http://home.netscape.com/people/jsw
Any opinions expressed above are mine.