On Wed, Apr 16, 2014 at 10:34 AM, Richard Barnes <[email protected]> wrote:

> Let me address this in two parts, first with my IESG hat on, and then as
> an individual.
>
> <hat type="IESG">
> The IESG does NOT think that a set of mandatory algorithms in JWA is a
> requirement for interoperability.
>

Clarification: I did not mean to imply that the IESG has an opinion one way
or another on this issue.  It hasn't been brought up.  But there are at
least a couple of members of the IESG who do not believe that mandatory
algorithms are a requirement.

In other words: The IESG hasn't made up its collective mind on this yet, so
the WG has an opportunity to choose an answer and make an argument for it.


>
> After having discussed this with Kathleen and Sean: There are several
> different ways to address interoperability with a framework protocol like
> JOSE.  CMS provides a fine example of how algorithms can be left flexible
> at the security layer, with applications like S/MIME defining algorithm
> requirements.  Algorithm agility is another important consideration in
> security protocol design, and locking in algorithms too deeply can hinder
> updates in the future.
> </hat>
>
> <hat type="individual">
> I continue to be concerned that having mandatory algorithms for JOSE will
> make two types of applications non-compliant:
> 1. JOSE implementations are often going to not have any choice in what
> algorithms they can support.  They're going to be built on top of crypto
> libraries, which either support an algorithm or they don't.  It's pointless
> to levy requirements at the JOSE layer.
> 2. Constrained devices aren't going to want to implement a whole boatload
> of algorithms, just the ones they need for their use cases.
>
> Limiting the requirement to "standalone JOSE libraries" doesn't address
> either of these concerns.
>
> As a compromise, how about if we define a RECOMMENDED suite of common
> algorithms?  That would help guide implementations toward interop without
> ruling out the above use cases.
> </hat>
>
> Hope that helps clarify things,
> --Richard
>
>
> On Mon, Apr 14, 2014 at 9:09 AM, John Bradley <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> The IESG wants to see interoperability between implementations, to do
>> that without dragging in discovery etc there need to be minimum feature
>> sets of JOSE libraries that people can count on.
>>
>> A application using JOSE can elect not to support all the algorithms,
>>  but JOSE libraries need to support the mandatory to implement algorithms.
>>
>> On Apr 14, 2014, at 9:48 AM, Hannes Tschofenig <[email protected]>
>> wrote:
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I am looking at the implementation requirements of the JWA spec and I am
>> wondering to what deployment environment they refer they.
>> The JW* specs are generic building blocks and I fail to see how one can
>> list mandatory-to-implement algorithsms.
>>
>> Ciao
>> Hannes
>>
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>
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