[CFRG] (I don't agree) Re: [Errata Held for Document Update] RFC8032 (5759)

[Rene Struik <[e-mail]>]

slightly changed the subject header to facilitate tracking (my apologies 
for resend)

On 2022-02-15 3:53 p.m., Rene Struik wrote:
> Hi Stanislav:
>
> I do not agree: work products of CFRG should try and avoid the 
> tendency to try and be the ultimate implementation guidance as well 
> (which we should have learned by now).
>
> For CFRG to produce technically sound, well-written documents is hard 
> enough. For it to also be a know-all on how to securely or efficiently 
> implement things is a recipe for trouble (although it should of course 
> not specify things that cannot reasonably be implemented securely).
>
> In this case, while the formulae in RFC 8032 are clumsy, these are 
> correct, and the relative merit of changing these (~1% efficiency 
> gain) is insufficient to warrant time and effort (including effort to 
> find knowledgeable people to review this, explain this to be people 
> who were not in the room while changing this, etc.).
>
> As I wrote in my email of Jan 31, 2022, 3.47pm EST:
> In my mind, one of the lessons to be learned here is that it would be 
> highly recommended to stop the recent practice of CFRG to produce 
> drafts that are a curious mix of specification and implementation 
> details (which makes of this academic paper generators in the SCA 
> space and, moreover, monolithic documents that are hard to maintain 
> of, e.g., adapt to an instantiation with another hash function, say 
> SHA-256).
>
> Rene
>
>
> On 2022-02-15 12:42 a.m., RFC Errata System wrote:
>> The following errata report has been held for document update
>> for RFC8032, "Edwards-Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (EdDSA)".
>>
>> --------------------------------------
>> You may review the report below and at:
>> https://www.rfc-editor.org/errata/eid5759
>>
>> --------------------------------------
>> Status: Held for Document Update
>> Type: Technical
>>
>> Reported by: Franck Rondepierre <[e-mail]>
>> Date Reported: 2019-06-21
>> Held by: Stanislav Smyshlyaev (IRSG)
>>
>> Section: 5.2.
>>
>> Original Text
>> -------------
>>                            (p+1)/4    3            (p-3)/4
>>                   x = (u/v)        = u  v (u^5 v^3)         (mod p)
>>
>> Corrected Text
>> --------------
>>                            (p+1)/4            (p-3)/4
>>                   x = (u/v)        =  u (u v)         (mod p)
>>
>> Notes
>> -----
>>   --VERIFIER NOTES--
>> The original text was correct (verified by Nick Sullivan).
>> 01/28/2022: RFC Editor changed status to Reported per discussion with 
>> Stanislav V. Smyshlyaev.
>> 02/15/2022: The status is changed to "Held for Document Update" by 
>> Stanislav Smyshlyaev. The proposed formulas are correct as well (for 
>> the specific case of the EdDSA parameters) and provide a slight 
>> efficiency gain.
>>
>> --------------------------------------
>> RFC8032 (draft-irtf-cfrg-eddsa-08)
>> --------------------------------------
>> Title               : Edwards-Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (EdDSA)
>> Publication Date    : January 2017
>> Author(s)           : S. Josefsson, I. Liusvaara
>> Category            : INFORMATIONAL
>> Source              : Crypto Forum Research Group
>> Area                : N/A
>> Stream              : IRTF
>> Verifying Party     : IRSG
>>
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>
>

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