I tried to get this in place several years ago by requesting that the IETF require specific Use Statements which could be used to accurately reproduce the technologies in the RFC's or Standards and it wasn't too interested in that at the time. The problem is that with the many languages of the submitters it is very difficult to always tell what is intended - especially when the Editor's try and fix bad writing - they may in fact alter the alg's without intent. To prevent this detailed use and protocol transaction flow models are needed. Todd Glassey ----- Original Message ----- From: "Hadmut Danisch" <hadmut@xxxxxxxxxx> To: <ietf@xxxxxxxx> Cc: <rfc-editor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2006 7:41 AM Subject: Mandatory numeric examples in crypto-RFCs? > Hi, > > I am currently debugging some ISAKMP problems and thus using RFCs like > 2085, 2412, etc. about cryptographic algorithms and data formats. > > > Such RFCs are sometimes a little bit ambiguous or difficult to read > since details are spread around the paper. When implementing such > algorithms or data parsers, you don't know whether the implementation > is correct without a test case, e.g. feeding in some examples and > check whether the result is what is expected. > > > I'd therefore propose that every RFC dealing with crypto algorithms or > data formats has to have a mandatory appendix section with examples to > be used as a test case. (Every I-Draft should have.) > > E.g. when describing key agreements precise examples of the random > numbers and secrets, byte sequences of example messages, and the > results (signatures, keys,...) should be given allowing to do a simple > check of any implementation to see, whether the implementation works > in principle, and does not have such common bugs like wrong padding, > byte order problems etc. > > > > regards > Hadmut > > > _______________________________________________ > Ietf mailing list > Ietf@xxxxxxxx > https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf _______________________________________________ Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf