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Re: [openpgp] Fingerprints

Werner Koch <wk@gnupg.org> Thu, 16 April 2015 07:11 UTC

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From: Werner Koch <wk@gnupg.org>
To: Christoph Anton Mitterer <calestyo@scientia.net>
References: <CAMm+LwhbB+-MnGRBCvprgAGOuu+5CJ2rgod7EBGOQR5UNVrspQ@mail.gmail.com> <87y4m0ozlt.fsf@vigenere.g10code.de> <20150415135105.GJ3106@singpolyma-liberty> <FE2717DC-3950-4536-B83D-BD005D2F26A6@callas.org> <1429128262.1702.41.camel@scientia.net>
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Date: Thu, 16 Apr 2015 09:09:49 +0200
In-Reply-To: <1429128262.1702.41.camel@scientia.net> (Christoph Anton Mitterer's message of "Wed, 15 Apr 2015 22:04:22 +0200")
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Subject: Re: [openpgp] Fingerprints
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On Wed, 15 Apr 2015 22:04, calestyo@scientia.net said:

> But shouldn't one define better the number to be either a string?
> Sure a one byte number with 255 possible future algorithms seem plenty

All algorithm identifiers have by spec values below 128.  If in any
future time this number space is not sufficient, we can resort to the
TLV or UTF-8 tricks of using the high bit to encode larger numbers.  It
keeps our fingerprints as short as possible but give theoretical space
to extend it.

Short fingerprints are important; if they are getting too long they
won't serve a purpose because the public key could be used directly.


Shalom-Salam,

   Werner

-- 
Die Gedanken sind frei.  Ausnahmen regelt ein Bundesgesetz.

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