Thanks Ketan for the review, raised PR https://github.com/tireddy2/ikev2-pqc
-auth/pull/46 to address your comments.

-Tiru

On Tue, 18 Aug 2026 at 19:45, Ketan Talaulikar via Datatracker <
[email protected]> wrote:

> Ketan Talaulikar has entered the following ballot position for
> draft-ietf-ipsecme-ikev2-pqc-auth-11: No Objection
>
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> The document, along with other ballot positions, can be found here:
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>
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> COMMENT:
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Thanks to the authors and the WG for their work on this document.
>
> Disclaimer: not an IPsec expert and so take my comments might be off;
> happy to
> be corrected
>
> I have some comments and questions on this document provided inline in the
> idnits output of v11. Look for the <EoRv11> tag at the end to ensure you
> are
> seeing the full review.
>
> <major> Section 3.4, IKEv2 Message Fragmentation, and normative RFC 9329
>
> 276        IKEv2 peers supporting the PQC authentication mechanism defined
> in
> 277        this specification MUST implement IKEv2 message fragmentation
> 278        [RFC7383], unless IKEv2 runs over a reliable transport (e.g.,
> 279        [RFC9329]) or the underlying network is known to support
> sufficiently
> 280        large MTUs without fragmentation issues, since PQC public keys
> and
>
> RFC 9329 defines a condition that excuses implementations from an explicit
> MUST
> implement requirement and makes that RFC a borderline a normative
> reference? If
> the reference is intended to remain merely illustrative, please consider
> rephrasing that in a separate sentence. However, I don't know how someone
> can
> figure the underlying network without a user provided config/policy knob
> and I
> can't say whether or not that makes RFC 9329 more like a given thing that
> is
> needed?
>
> <major> Are RFCs 9881 and 9909 Normative References? Same Q as Deb raised.
>
> 433        The three security levels of ML-DSA are identified via
> 434        AlgorithmIdentifier ASN.1 objects, as specified in NIST [CSOR]
> and
> 435        referenced in PKIX Algorithm Identifiers for the ML-DSA
> [RFC9881].
> 436        [FIPS204] defines both a pure and a pre-hash variant of ML-DSA,
> but
> 437        PKIX Algorithm Identifiers for the ML-DSA [RFC9881] specifies
> only
> 438        the pure variant.
> 440        The different parameter sets of SLH-DSA are identified via
> 441        AlgorithmIdentifier ASN.1 objects, as specified in NIST [CSOR]
> and
> 442        referenced in PKIX Algorithm Identifiers for the SLH-DSA
> [RFC9909].
> 483        The Security Considerations section of PKIX Algorithm
> Identifiers for
> 484        ML-DSA [RFC9881] and PKIX Algorithm Identifiers for SLH-DSA
> [RFC9909]
> 485        apply to this specification as well.
>
> I could be wrong, but they seem to depend on and require a
> reader/implementer
> to go through those?
>
> <major> This is related to Security Considerations. The document explains
> how
> peers advertise PQC authentication methods, but it does not state what
> local
> policy is necessary when post-quantum authentication is a requirement
> rather
> than an opportunistic preference. RFC 9593 Section 6
> (https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9593.html#section-6) warns that an
> attacker
> able to break one announced authentication method online can strip stronger
> methods and induce the weaker choice. Is something on those lines required
> or
> at least be helpful here?
>
> 635        The second approach involves using the Externalμ-ML-DSA API
> allowed
> 636        by [FIPS204]; specifically by the comment to line 6 of
> algorithm 7 of
> 637        FIPS 204.  In this method, the implementation calls the
> External μ
> 638        pre-hashing mode with the SignedOctets string and the ML-DSA
> public
> 639        key, which externalizes the message pre-hashing originally
> performed
> 640        inside the signing operation (see Appendix D of [RFC9881] for
> ML-DSA
> 641        pre-hashing).  The resulting μ value is then passed to the
> 642        cryptographic library to execute the Externalμ-ML-DSA.Sign API,
> which
> 643        uses μ and the ML-DSA private key to produce the signature.
> This
> 644        document specifies only the use of ML-DSA's External μ mode and
> does
> 645        not use HashML-DSA.
> 649        Both approaches are considered "pure" mode and produce the same
> ML-
> 650        DSA signature and are fully interoperable.
>
> <question> This is about appendix A - it appears to provide implementation
> guidance? If so, please consider moving the
> normative/interoperability-relevant
> text into the relevant sections ?
>
> <EoRv11>
>
>
>
>
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