Re: SERPENT in OpenPGP?

[Werner Koch <[e-mail]>]

On Thu, 26 Aug 2010 23:02, [e-mail] said:

> Have it ever been considered to add SERPENT to OpenPGP?

No.  We have strong algorithms and we try to keep the list of algorithms
short for better interoperability.  I can see no reason to add Serpent
to OpenPGP; there is no advantage.

Nowadays we use AES as the one true standardized algorithms.  For
backward compatibility we support a few other algorithms as well.

Twofish is a special case because back in 1999 we considered it a good
idea to add a 128 bit block size cipher to OpenPGP and picked a
promising candidate from the AES contest.  Twofish didn't win the
competition but we kept it for backward compatibility.  This backward
compatibility is also a reason why we should not add new algorithms just
for the fun of it.  We will have to support those algorithms for the
next decades on all kind of devices and each extra algorithms makes that
harder from a maintenance point of view.

Camellia has been added because it is a required algorithm in Japan,
like AES in the US and elsewhere.


Salam-Shalom,

   Werner


-- 
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