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Re: [jose] RFC 8037 "alg" quirkiness

Neil Madden <neil.madden@forgerock.com> Sun, 30 August 2020 07:10 UTC

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From: Neil Madden <neil.madden@forgerock.com>
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Date: Sun, 30 Aug 2020 08:10:17 +0100
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To: Anders Rundgren <anders.rundgren.net@gmail.com>
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Subject: Re: [jose] RFC 8037 "alg" quirkiness
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8037 was done by CFRG, so probably best to ask there. 

I like this aspect of the spec. IMO “alg” as a header was a mistake. By using a generic algorithm header, it forces implementors to associate the specific details in metadata stored with the key, which is much safer. 

Neil

> On 30 Aug 2020, at 07:58, Anders Rundgren <anders.rundgren.net@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I have just implemented support for Edwards curves in my JSON library.
> 
> Although it is certainly not a deal-breaker I find the use of "EdDSA" as a generic Edwards algorithm identifier rather quirky since it departs from the other JWS algorithms:
> https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc8037#appendix-A.4
> 
> For curiosity reasons I took a peek at the initial draft which has (in my opinion...) a more logical solution:
> https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-liusvaara-jose-cfrg-curves-00#appendix-A.4
> 
> May I ask why this change was performed?
> 
> For JSF (JSON Signature Format) I will stick to the "00" scheme which also permits use of ed25519ph and friends if needed:
> https://mobilepki.org/jsf-lab/home
> 
> thanx,
> Anders
> 
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