Re: IDEA licensing vs RSA licensing (Re: What do we have to do today?)

[Bill Stewart <stewarts@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>>   Anyway, I agree with the people who are arguing for MUST for 3DES,
>>   DSA, Elgamal; and SHOULD for RSA, IDEA, MD5, and MAY for the rest.

Presumably SHA-1 also belongs in MUST?

>A very basic reason: SHOULD is only for things that are strongly desired
>by all implementations. If we have a strong algorithm for a MUST and
>another strong algorithm for a SHOULD, I see no point to tossing another
>SHOULD in. Many developers try to implement all SHOULD-level specs, and
>this would cause needless software bloat with little definable benefit.

3DES is MUST, because everybody trusts it, but nobody really likes it :-)  
IDEA is fine, and fast enough to use, but encumbered.

Adding CAST5 as a SHOULD sets a direction that we want a fast free
algorithm to be the primary operating mode, which I think is good,
and says that enough people trust CAST5 that it's the best choice -
is that realistic?
				Thanks! 
					Bill
Bill Stewart, stewarts@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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