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Re: [TLS] On Curve25519 and other possibilities (e.g. ietf256p, ietf384p, ietf521p,

"Blumenthal, Uri - 0668 - MITLL" <uri@ll.mit.edu> Mon, 07 July 2014 16:08 UTC

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From: "Blumenthal, Uri - 0668 - MITLL" <uri@ll.mit.edu>
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Subject: Re: [TLS] On Curve25519 and other possibilities (e.g. ietf256p, ietf384p, ietf521p,
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On Jul 7, 2014, at 12:00 , Johannes Merkle <johannes.merkle@secunet.com> wrote:
> Alyssa Rowan wrote on 07.07.2014 15:14:
>> ......I appreciate there's not much we can do about implementers screwing up badly - but if we do have two primitives of about equal value and one fails catastrophically to a simple mistake that another does not, then as a matter of defense in depth, I'd generally prefer the more resilient one?.....
> In this discussion, it is important to focus on the most essential arguments. "Twist security" is not among them, as it only applies to very special cases and poor implementations. Montgomery and Edwards curves have other potential problems due the non-trivial co-factor, so there is always something a sloppy implementor can screw up.
> 
> Computational performance is a valid argument, and where performance is your main criteria, your may go for special primes and non-Weierstrass curves; but there are sufficient circumstances, where performance is not the principal criteria. IMHO, it is wise to maintain curves with different properties to accommodate different demands.

+1

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