Re: [TLS] [Editorial Errata Reported] RFC8446 (6127)

>From the perspective of someone who spends a lot of his time writing/editing standards, I agree with the Errata and disagree with Peter's comment. If "abort" and "terminate" mean the same thing, that should be made clear. Words in standards need to have specific definitions. A developer who reads "abort" in one place and "terminate" in another might reasonably assume that because two different words are used, two different things are meant, and burn unnecessary cycles working out what the difference is.

William

-----Original Message-----
From: TLS <tls-bounces@ietf.org> On Behalf Of Peter Wu
Sent: Friday, May 1, 2020 7:07 AM
To: RFC Errata System <rfc-editor@rfc-editor.org>
Cc: rdd@cert.org; sean+ietf@sn3rd.com; kaduk@mit.edu; tls@ietf.org
Subject: [EXT] Re: [TLS] [Editorial Errata Reported] RFC8446 (6127)

How could this affect the readers comprehension? This is not an
editorial issue in as defined at
https://www.rfc-editor.org/errata-definitions/

>From the context it is often clear what "abort" or "terminate" means.
An enumeration of the first occurrences in the document:

 - "A failure of the handshake or other protocol error triggers the
    termination of the connection, optionally preceded by an alert
    message (Section 6)."
 - "the server MUST abort the handshake with an appropriate alert."
 - "MUST abort the handshake with an "unexpected_message" alert."

I suggest rejecting this report.

Kind regards,
Peter

On Fri, Apr 24, 2020 at 02:55:57AM -0700, RFC Errata System wrote:
> The following errata report has been submitted for RFC8446,
> "The Transport Layer Security (TLS) Protocol Version 1.3".
>
> --------------------------------------
> You may review the report below and at:
> https://www.rfc-editor.org/errata/eid6128
>
> --------------------------------------
> Type: Editorial
> Reported by: Ben Smyth <research@bensmyth.com>
>
> Section: GLOBAL
>
> Original Text
> -------------
> terminate and abort are used interchangeable, but this isn't explained until after such use.
>
> In Section 6.2, we have: In the rest of this specification, when the phrases "terminate the connection" and "abort the handshake" are used without a specific alert it means that the implementation SHOULD send the alert indicated by the
> descriptions below.
>
> Corrected Text
> --------------
> Perhaps explain terminology earlier. At the very least, in Section 6.2, open the above sentence with "Throughout this specification"
>
>
>
> Notes
> -----
>
>
> Instructions:
> -------------
> This erratum is currently posted as "Reported". If necessary, please
> use "Reply All" to discuss whether it should be verified or
> rejected. When a decision is reached, the verifying party
> can log in to change the status and edit the report, if necessary.
>
> --------------------------------------
> RFC8446 (draft-ietf-tls-tls13-28)
> --------------------------------------
> Title               : The Transport Layer Security (TLS) Protocol Version 1.3
> Publication Date    : August 2018
> Author(s)           : E. Rescorla
> Category            : PROPOSED STANDARD
> Source              : Transport Layer Security
> Area                : Security
> Stream              : IETF
> Verifying Party     : IESG
>
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> TLS@ietf.org
> https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/tls

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