Re: [openpgp] AEAD Chunk Size

["Neal H. Walfield" <[e-mail]>]

Hi Derek,

On Wed, 20 Mar 2019 14:24:22 +0100,
Derek Atkins wrote:
> I still don't think we need a fixed chunk size.  Different use cases may
> dictate different ideas.  It's a tradeoff, of course.  The hope would be
> the receiver can signal to the sender what it should do.

I've spent some time thinking about use cases for different chunk
sizes, and I can't come up with any modulo some, IMHO, insignificant
performance tweaks.  Can you please give some examples of use cases
that would profit from different chunk sizes?

> I DO believe that recommended chunk sizes should be smaller than, say
> 4TB (let alone exabytes).  I am happy to have the range be anywhere from
> 1KB to 128MB (give or take), but I still don't think we should outright
> prohibit smaller or larger.  Considering the chunk size should be part
> of the protected data, I don't see how an attacker could modify it, only
> a sender that doesn't pay attention.

If I understand you correctly, you would support a SHOULD restriction
on the the range, but not a MUST restriction.

What should / would you recommend an implementation do if it
encounters a chunk that it can't buffer?  I see two choices: report an
error, or release unauthenticated plaintext.



Please don't misunderstand my questions: I sincerely am interested in
your answers to these questions.

Thanks!

:) Neal