Algorithm Names - registry?

[Bradford Wetmore]

On 11/30/2011 6:34 PM, Michael StJohns wrote:

> By the way - why are CCM and GCM ciphers rather than cipher modes in the table?  They can be applied to any block cipher (i think with a specific block length).

Good grief.  I apparently didn't review the tech writers work on that 
one.  I'll get that fixed ASAP.  Good catch.

I'll look into the rest of the comments later, it's 11:30pm  :).  Thanks 
for the response.

Brad

> Mike
>
>
> At 08:20 PM 11/29/2011, Brad Wetmore wrote:
>> I'm just one person, but I'm completely open to discussing on security-dev potential names/values to add.  I do have strong hesitations about just opening it up to anyone to add something (i.e. a wiki), allowing them to reserve names with no discussion.  (I'm thinking what a mess it could be if there was no IETF-IANA.)
>>
>> The JDK 7 edition is at:
>>
>> http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/technotes/guides/security/StandardNames.html
>>
>> The current doc does have most of the items you're suggesting, but maybe not as structured.  A reformatting might be helpful.
>>
>> I would also hesitate including optional secondary names, as the point of a standard name is to settle on one name that can be used across implementations.  Having three possible aliases like for SHA1 (SHA-1, SHA1, SHA) just makes things confusing for end users.
>>
>> Hadn't really thought about adding Javacard algids here.  I know outside Oracle this shouldn't matter, but they're a completely different group.
>>
>> My $.02.
>>
>> Brad
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 11/28/2011 10:30 AM, Michael StJohns wrote:
>>> One of the items that seems terribly out of date is the "Standard Names" list.  Also, sometimes its difficult to tell which algorithm - specifically - the name applies to.
>>>
>>> I'm wondering if it isn't time to create something like a Wiki for name registration and - for example - let the folks building the various JCE providers add or propose names.  I mention this because I'm finding it tiresome looking through the BouncyCastle source code each time I need to find an algorithm name not on the list.
>>>
>>> I would suggest as data elements:
>>>
>>> Primary name, Optional secondary names; Object Identifier (if any); Applicable JCE class (e.g. Cipher, MessageDigest, etc), Primary standard (e.g. RFCXXXX, ISOXXXX - section yy, option zzz); Alternate standards (for example ECDSA is referenced in SECG, NIST, ANSI etc); clarifying comments (e.g. "Use IvAlgorithmParameter with this").
>>>
>>>
>>> Continuing this thought - the Javacard algorithm identifiers could also be included in this table.
>>>
>>> Mike
>
>