Re: IETF process

[Paul Hoffman / IMC <phoffman@xxxxxxx>]

The ietf-open-pgp mailing list isn't the most appropriate place for
discussing S/MIME, is it? :-) I'd like to point people over to the mailing
list for the just-formed S/MIME Working Group at ietf-smime@xxxxxxxx
However, since there is a bit of confusion still here, I'd like to clear it
up so it doesn't get in the way of the decisions being made here about
OpenPGP.

At 10:26 AM 11/8/97 -0800, Ned Freed wrote:
>This then means that there will be no less than four S/MIMEs:
>
>(1) The original RSADSI S/MIME.
>(2) The one that's coming out as a set of informational RFCs.
>(3) The one the WG will standardize.
>(4) The one that will result from the PKCS rewrite that RSADSI is supposedly
>    doing.

Nope, sorry. The number will be two.
- It's not clear that anyone ever implemented (1)
- (2) is what is out there today
- (3) is what will be out there if the S/MIME WG does its job
- (4) will not be created
For (4), there are no plans for the S/MIME spec to use the revised PKCS #7
format if it ever comes out. All desired changes for S/MIME that might be
made in PKCS #7 should be made to the CMS that will be used in S/MIME v3.
At the last S/MIME developer's meeting, there was a very definite choice to
support (3) and not to try to do (4). Further, (4) is *not* on the charter
for the S/MIME WG. There's a good chance the S/MIME WG will have dissolved
before the PKCS revision is even finished.

Thus, we'll be left with two versions of S/MIME (v2 and v3), just like
there will be two versions of PGP/MIME (RFC 1991/2015 and OpenPGP). The
reasons for having two versions of each protocol are almost identical:
earlier use of encumbered algorithms, later use of unencumbered algorithms
plus fixes and extensions.


--Paul Hoffman, Director
--Internet Mail Consortium