Re: [TLS] Document Action: 'TLS Elliptic Curve Cipher Suites with SHA-256/384 and AES Galois Counter Mode' to Informational RFC

[Dean Anderson <dean at av8.com>]

Gentle people,

I can find no patent disclosures on this document listed on the IETF IPR 
search page at https://datatracker.ietf.org/ipr/search/ using 
draft-ietf-tls-ecc-new-mac as the I-D Filename.

Elliptic curve cryptography is a heavilly patented area, and it seems 
impossible that this draft does not involve an existing patent.

I also seemed to have missed the discussion of non-patented 
alternatives, as required by RFC3979.

Surely the IESG would not approve a document AGAIN that did not disclose 
its patent status in violation of RFC3979 et al!?!   

I have to object to the approval of this draft on those grounds.  I am
very concerned that the IESG would not be more circumspect and careful
in light of the previous TLS-Authz scandal. See
http://www.av8.net/IETF-watch/People/Housley/index.html
http://www.av8.net/IETF-watch/People/TimPolk/index.html 
for more information about TLS-Authz.

		--Dean


On Mon, 23 Jun 2008, The IESG wrote:

> The IESG has approved the following document:
> 
> - 'TLS Elliptic Curve Cipher Suites with SHA-256/384 and AES Galois 
>    Counter Mode '
>    <draft-ietf-tls-ecc-new-mac-07.txt> as an Informational RFC
> 
> This document is the product of the Transport Layer Security Working 
> Group. 
> 
> The IESG contact persons are Pasi Eronen and Tim Polk.
> 
> A URL of this Internet-Draft is:
> http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-tls-ecc-new-mac-07.txt
> 
> Technical Summary
> 
>    This document describes new ECC cipher suites for TLS which
>    specify stronger MAC algorithms. Eight use HMAC with SHA-256 or
>    SHA-384 and eight use AES in Galois Counter Mode (GCM).
> 
> Working Group Summary
> 
>    This document is a product of the Transport Layer Security (TLS)
>    Working Group. The document represents the consensus of the TLS
>    working group.
> 
> Document Quality
> 
>    There has been significant review of the document by members of
>    the TLS working group on the document and changes were made to
>    improve the document based on these reviews.
> 
> Personnel
> 
>    The Document Shepherd for this document is Joseph Salowey, and the
>    responsible Area Director is Pasi Eronen.
> 
> RFC Editor Note
> 
>    In document title, expand "GCM" to "Galois Counter Mode (GCM)"
> 
>    Abstract:
>    OLD:
>       However, all those cipher suites use SHA-1 as their MAC
>       algorithm.  This document describes sixteen new cipher suites
>       for TLS which specify stronger digest algorithms.
>    NEW:
>       However, all those cipher suites use HMAC-SHA1 as their MAC
>       algorithm.  This document describes sixteen new cipher suites
>       for TLS which specify stronger MAC algorithms.
> 
>    Section 3.1
>    OLD:
>       These eight cipher suites are the same as the corresponding
>       cipher suites in RFC 4492 (with names ending in "_SHA" in place
>       of "_SHA256" or "_SHA384"), except for the hash and PRF
>       algorithms.
>    NEW:
>       These eight cipher suites are the same as the corresponding
>       cipher suites in RFC 4492 (with names ending in "_SHA" in place
>       of "_SHA256" or "_SHA384"), except for the MAC and PRF
>       algorithms.
> 
> _______________________________________________
> TLS mailing list
> TLS at ietf.org
> https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/tls
> 
> 

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