[TLS] Re: Do we really update RFC 8422 in 8446-bis?

[Eric Rescorla <[e-mail]>]

On Fri, May 30, 2025 at 8:57 AM Salz, Rich <[e-mail]> wrote:

> Based on the opening sentences of 8422:
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>    This document describes additions to TLS to support ECC that are
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>    applicable to TLS versions 1.0 [RFC2246], 1.1 [RFC4346], and 1.2
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>    [RFC5246].  The use of ECC in TLS 1.3 is defined in [TLS1.3] and is
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>    explicitly out of scope for this document.
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> It seems that mutually ignoring is best :). I.e., 8446bis doesn’t update
> 8422 except in a strange way because it obsoletes TLS 1..2
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> And while I’m here, why does it obsolete 5246 (TLS 1.2) if it “also
> specifies new requirements for TLS 1.2 implementations” ?  So should that
> be updates, not obsoletes 5246?
>

I'm certainly not here to defend the distinctions between Updates and
Obsoletes, etc. But with that said:

1. I think the reasoning here was that TLS 1.3 obsoletes TLS 1.2 in the
sense that 1.2 is now obsolete and we want you to use TLS 1.3.
2. RFC 8446 already obsoleted 5246, so I think that ship has sailed.

The 8422 change is new to RFC 8446bis, so we need to address that now.

-Ekr



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