Re: [Cfrg] KCipher-2

Jon Callas <jon@callas.org> Fri, 07 December 2012 19:00 UTC

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From: Jon Callas <jon@callas.org>
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Cc: cfrg@irtf.org, Jon Callas <jon@callas.org>
Subject: Re: [Cfrg] KCipher-2
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My answers:

No, and yes.

Publish the document. It's an *informational* RFC. In general, I think that an informational RFC should default against editorializing. For a cipher, yes, you don't want to document something that is bad. We all know and agree that. We all also know the dangers of too many options. But we also know the dangers of monoculture. Providing information is different than interpreting it. I think KCipher-2 meets a bar on that. 

Yes, put the table in. It's a long-standing frustration of mine that crypto documents seem to think that part of the fun is to guess about implementation until you finally get it right. A sort of gameification, I suppose, that makes a spec a choose-your-own adventure. This gets boring, fast. The vast majority of us implementors want to get it done, fast and accurate. Anything that helps that is a Good Thing.

	Jon


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