Zoltan Fridrich <[email protected]> writes:

>> Another naming question, should it be dsa_slh_shake128, or maybe
>> dsa_slh128_shake ?
>
> We could stick to the spec param names like slh_dsa_shake_128s. Also do you
> prefer slh_dsa or dsa_slh prefix?

I was a bit careless, it seems. The spec name slh_dsa_shake_128s looks
reasonable, and we could stay consistent with that.

Simon Josefsson <[email protected]> writes:

> It would be nice to get naming right...

I agree, thanks for helping out.

> - The DSA-SLH specification aren't final, are they?  NIST is known to
>   make last minute incompatible changes that can complicate naming, or
>   make a small change in five years that modify the algorithm.

According to https://csrc.nist.gov/pubs/fips/205/final, the version
published 2024-08-13 is final. And it includes some changes (context
string, domain-separation stuff) which, as I have understood it, makes
the spec incompatible with the earlier SPHINCS+ proposal.

I would expect that the NIST version is the one that will be deployed in
practice. For that reason, I'd lean towards using the NIST names.

I would also lean towards initially not supporting non-empty context string.

> - Using "s" (for "small") and "f" (for "fast") variants is in common
>   use.

Makes sense, I think we should have that in our naming.

> - Round 2 submission of SPHINCS+ introduced the variants "simple" and
>   "robust" which has consequences for naming.

Those are new to me (I have only read the NIST spec, I haven't followed
along in the process leading up to that).

Which of those variants made it into the NIST spec? Is there a short
explanation for when one would want one or the other?

> Using 'sha2' and 'sha3' seems clearer than including hash size like
> 'shake256' or 'sha256'.

I agree the hash size should be attached to the signature algorithm
rather than to the underlying hash algorithm. But I think "shake" rather
than "sha3" seems reasonably clear too.

> Expanding 'small', 'fast, 'simple' and 'robust' may avoid some
> confusion.  I've made the mistake of confusing 'small' with 'simple'
> when I used 's' myself.

Right, if we're going to have them all, then "s" as abbreviation gets
confusing.

Regards,
/Niels

-- 
Niels Möller. PGP key CB4962D070D77D7FCB8BA36271D8F1FF368C6677.
Internet email is subject to wholesale government surveillance.
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