Re: Last Call: draft-ietf-tls-extractor (Keying Material Exporters for Transport Layer Security (TLS)) to Proposed Standard

[Simon Josefsson <simon at josefsson.org>]

With the caveat that I have recently returned from vacation, and
consequently may have missed some clarifications or paged out some
context:

If the #1154 IPR disclosure is the final word from Certicom on this
document, I don't support advancing this document on the standards
track.  My concern remains that Certicom claims they have IPR that
covers the document -- that is what the #1154 disclosure says (section
IV).  The additional information provided in the PDF is not helping: it
grants a license for use together with ECC.  It doesn't say anything
about the use without ECC.

The way I see it, TLS implementers and the broader Internet does not
gain something significant by having this document published.  Other
IETF documents can use the TLS PRF to derive keying material.  On the
contrary, it seems both TLS implementers and the broader Internet
community would be hurt by publishing the document since having patent
threats looming over widely used techniques has stability and
interoperability impacts.

I recall that Certicom was positive about clarifying their intentions so
maybe we can continue that discussion and get something more useful than
the recent disclosure.

Speaking as TLS implementer of the document and document [1] author that
reference this document,
/Simon

[1] http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-josefsson-krb5starttls-bootstrap-02

The IESG <iesg-secretary at ietf.org> writes:

> The IESG has received a request from the Transport Layer Security WG 
> (tls) to consider the following document:
>
> - 'Keying Material Exporters for Transport Layer Security (TLS) '
>    <draft-ietf-tls-extractor-06.txt> as a Proposed Standard
>
> The IESG plans to make a decision in the next few weeks, and solicits
> final comments on this action.  Please send substantive comments to the
> ietf at ietf.org mailing lists by 2009-08-10. Exceptionally, 
> comments may be sent to iesg at ietf.org instead. In either case, please 
> retain the beginning of the Subject line to allow automated sorting.
>
> The file can be obtained via
> http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-tls-extractor-06.txt
>
>
> IESG discussion can be tracked via
> https://datatracker.ietf.org/public/pidtracker.cgi?command=view_id&dTag=16821&rfc_flag=0