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From: Alberto Leiva <ydahhrk@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 22 May 2019 17:18:34 -0500
Message-ID: <CAA0dE=VOCvxb_0-pEB8CO=JZ9FShVf=pQ43pCmAeYCf9LRTTcw@mail.gmail.com>
To: sidr@ietf.org
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Archived-At: <https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/msg/sidr/ENSRjlq9KgvRAyREVOIlrKLN7iw>
Subject: [sidr] rsaEncryption vs sha256WithRSAEncryption in RPKI certificates
Precedence: list

Hello

Another question.

RFC 7935 states the following:

3.1.  Public Key Format

   (...)

   algorithm (which is an AlgorithmIdentifier type):
      The object identifier for RSA PKCS #1 v1.5 with SHA-256 MUST be
      used in the algorithm field, as specified in Section 5 of
      [RFC4055].  The value for the associated parameters from that
      clause MUST also be used for the parameters field.

I've never seen a certificate that declares sha256WithRSAEncryption ({
pkcs-1 11 }) as its public key algorithm. Every certificate I've come
across labels its algorithm as rsaEncryption ({ pkcs-1 1 }).

(Certificates always define the signature algorithm as
sha256WithRSAEncryption, but that's a different field.)

Is everyone doing it wrong, or am I missing something?

I'm aware that this is likely a triviality--rsaEncryption and
sha256WithRSAEncryption probably mean the same in this context.
There's also a thread in this list in which people seem to have
experienced headaches over this topic. But the thread is talking about
CMS signed objects (which I believe is different from certificates),
and happened before 7935 was released, so it feels like the RFC should
mandate something consistent with reality by now.

Thanks for any pointers.