Subject: Re: Appeal draft-ietf-ipsec-ciph-cbc-03.txt and all documents referencing it

From: Fred Baker <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 01 Mar 1999 18:00:00 -0800

Bill:

This is my formal reply to your appeal, dated October 22. I want to tell
you that the IESG considered your grounds carefully, reviewed the evidence
that you submitted and investigated for itself, and made a decision. My
note to you has been unnecessarily delayed; for that I apologize.

>Pursuant to the process detailed in RFC-2026 sections 6.5.1 and 6.5.2,
>and ultimately 6.5.3, I appeal the IESG decision to publish
>draft-ietf-ipsec-ciph-cbc-03.txt and all documents referencing it,
>together with the failure to publish draft-simpson-cbc-01.txt,
>draft-simpson-desx-02.txt and draft-simpson-des3v2-03.txt (or earlier
>versions thereof).
>
>I have exhausted the usual discussion with (and written protests to) the
>WG chairs and the reviewing Area Director, either before and/or after
>the Last Call period.

>I repeat my earlier statement of Wed, 30 Sep 1998, that "I intend to
>take every avenue to prevent the publication of this document in
>anything like its current form."
>
>Please take note that publication of the -ciph-cbc- document may subject
>the author/editors, WG Chairs, IESG, RFC-Editor, and ISoc to financial
>penalties based on a claim of plagiarism and misappropriating copyright.

Duly noted.

>There are numerous technical errors in draft-ietf-ipsec-ciph-cbc-03.txt,
>that also have interactions with process errors.  In this list, the
>technical errors are generally mentioned first, followed by the process
>issues.  However, the results are often interdependent.

> 1) The most egregious technical error is the statement [ciph-cbc page 4]:
>
>     "The reader should note that the minimum key size for all of the
>      above cipher algorithms is 40 bits, and that the authors strongly
>      advise that implementations do NOT use key sizes smaller than 40
>      bits."
>
>    One of the algorithms specified is Triple DES.  The sole purpose of
>    3DES is to increase the effective key length beyond 112-bits.  This
>    statement is technically incompatible with the specification of 3DES.
>
>    There are other algorithms specified, several of which are intended
>    to have an effective key length of at least 128 bits.
>
>    The AD statement on this issue is both incorrect and incompetent.
>
>    While "any cipher can be abused in this manner", such abuse is
>    contrary to the technical specifications and requirements of the
>    cipher.  It is not technically competent for the IETF to
>    "standardize" an abuse of the cipher.
>
>    It should be noted that there was considerable WG resistance on the
>    mailing list to specifying 40 bits.  Never-the-less, the WG Chairs
>    "declared" consensus.
>
>    Wide technical review is for the express purpose that we prevent
>    such mistakes, regardless of the "decisions" of a Working Group.

To address this complaint we need to look at more of the context of the
paragraph. Below I reproduce the entire relevant section (with embedded
page breaks removed):

2.2 Key Size

   Some cipher algorithms allow for variable sized keys, while others
   only allow a specific key size.  The length of the key correlates
   with the strength of that algorithm, thus larger keys are always
   harder to break than shorter ones.

   This document stipulates that all key sizes MUST be a multiple of 8
   bits.

   This document does specify the default key size for each cipher
   algorithm.  This size was chosen by consulting experts on the
   algorithm and by balancing strength of the algorithm with
   performance.

   +==============+==================+=================+==========+
   | Algorithm    | Key Sizes (bits) | Popular Sizes   | Default  |
   +==============+==================+=================+==========+
   | CAST-128 [1] | 40 to 128        | 40, 64, 80, 128 | 128      |
   +--------------+------------------+-----------------+----------+
   | RC5          | 40 to 2040       | 40, 128, 160    | 128      |
   +--------------+------------------+-----------------+----------+
   | IDEA         | 128              | 128             | 128      |
   +--------------+------------------+-----------------+----------+
   | Blowfish     | 40 to 448        | 128             | 128      |
   +--------------+------------------+-----------------+----------+
   | 3DES [2]     | 192              | 192             | 192      |
   +--------------+------------------+-----------------+----------+

   Notes:

   [1] With CAST-128, keys less than 128 bits MUST be padded with
   zeros in the rightmost, or least significant, positions out to 128
   bits since the CAST-128 key schedule assumes an input key of 128
   bits.  Thus if you had a key with a size of 80 bits '3B5D831CFE',
   it would be padded to produce a key with a size of 128 bits
   '3B5D831CFE000000'.

   [2] The first 3DES key is taken from the first 64 bits, the second
   from the next 64 bits, and the third from the last 64 bits.
   Implementations MUST take into consideration the parity bits when
   initially accepting a new set of keys.  Each of the three keys is
   really 56 bits in length with the extra 8 bits used for parity.

   The reader should note that the minimum key size for all of the
   above cipher algorithms is 40 bits, and that the authors strongly
   advise that implementations do NOT use key sizes smaller than 40
   bits.

The chart makes it pretty clear that 3DES is not intended to be used with
40 bit keys. However other ciphers may be used with 40 bit keys. The
purpose of this section is to make it clear how to pad keys if an
implementor chooses to use less then the "nominal" number of key bits. This
document is about how to use the ciphers and not about what key lengths are
appropriate. Nothing prevents an implementor from using longer keys which
have only limited entropy (and thus only have the strength of a shorter
key). In fact Netscape's SSL/TLS cipher suite of EXP-RC4-40 uses the RC4
cipher with 128 bits. The key is the result of an MD5 hash (which always
produces 128 bits) over a quantity that contains only 40 bits which are
unknown to an eavesdropper.

You argue that we shouldn't make any statement here about key lengths less
then the natural key lengths of the cipher(s) (though some ciphers
naturally accept a key of variable length and have no natural lower bound).
However this is a discussion that was had by the working group, and you do
not agree with the resulting consensus position.  Our processes permit this
form of "rough" consensus.

The IESG does not believe that this issue has sufficient merit to hold up
progression of this document by remanding it to the working group to
"correct" this position.

The publication of this document as a Proposed Standard does not close out
the potential for future discussion within the working group that might
lead to a change in the document in this area. However that is for the
working group to decide and deal with.

> 2) Another blatant error is the statement [ciph-cbc page 9]:
>
>     "To avoid ECB encryption of very similar plaintext blocks in
>     different packets, implementations MUST NOT use a counter or other
>     low-Hamming distance source for IVs."
>
>    This document purports to be about CBC (not ECB) operation of block
>    mode ciphers.
>
>    Moreover, none of the ciphers presented are susceptable to an ECB
>    attack.  Such an attack would require a minimum of 2**64 64-bit
>    blocks of memory, which is generally considered impractical, and an
>    average search time on order of 2**32 per block, which is generally
>    considered impractical.  For these ciphers, when used with keys
>    longer than 64-bits, the result of such a search would not reveal
>    the key, and the same search would be needed for every block.
>
>    Furthermore, since this document specifies "explicit" IVs, rather
>    than the "derived" IVs of earlier RFCs, the IV is known.  Anyone
>    that actually understands how IVs work knows that the same 2**64
>    64-bit blocks would be used in any case, no matter what method is
>    used for generating the explicit IV.  For decryption, the known IV
>    is XOR'd _after_ applying the block search mentioned above.
>
>    Thus, this statement is both incorrect and incompetent.  It really
>    shows how much the purported author/editors really understand about
>    the subject material.
>
>    For examples of documents that completely prevent an ECB attack,
>    using a derived IV, see:
>
>         draft-simpson-ipsec-enhancement-01.txt
>         draft-simpson-cbcs-01.txt

Many packets begin with similar or identical bit patterns; for example, the
difference in headers between two successive segments in a TCP data stream
may be as little as the IP checksum and packet identifier, and the TCP
Sequence number of the TCP segments. Consider the simple case of two IV's
(for two consecutive packets) where the first IV is the value "0" and the
second IV is the value "1" (yes this is very simple, but it is an
illustration). The only difference between these two IVs is one bit. If the
two packets begin with the same 64 bits (for DES), then the input to the
first round of DES would differ in only one bit. It is this type of
difference that is exploited by Eli Biham in his differential cryptanalysis
of DES. (see the document for how IV's are used).

A worse case occurs where the one bit difference between the IV's happens
to fall on a location where there is a one bit difference between the two
packets. In this case the differences will cancel out and the first block
of cipher text for the two packets will be identical. This will certainly
leak information to an attacker (given that the attacker will know the IVs).

The document gives sound advice as to how to avoid this problem, and it
comes at very little implementation cost. It is the judgement of the
Security ADs and the working group that you are incorrect in your assertion
here.

> 3) There are other minor technical errors in the document, that would
>    be more clear had the document conformed to roadmap requirements.
>    Some of these errors may be due to lack of clarity by combination of
>    multiple algorithms in the same document.

This may be the case. The question to the IESG is whether the document was
developed by correct processes, and represents the consensus of the working
group. The question for the working group is whether the clarifications are
necessary.

I don't need to remind you of the long and tortured process that the IPSEC
working group went through in getting these documents to where they are
today. This is one case where a combination of human failures and business
interests contrived to make reaching any agreement extremely difficult.
Besides being argued over in detail by the working group, the documents
iterated between the working group and the area directors.

It is our understanding that the Proposed Standard step is a trial
deployment. We publish documents which may be imperfect, believing that the
combination of deployment experience and implementation experience will
bring to light not only remaining imperfections that may be known at the
time of document publishing but imperfections that are latent and will only
show up with use. Therefore we deem that "other minor technical errors" are
acceptable in a proposed Standard document, and it is more useful to the
community to publish the document than to wrangle out these last few
glitches. We have every confidence that the documents will require future
editing, and these can be worked out at that time.

> 4) The document does not meet the WG document roadmap requirements,
>    which have been through last call.  In particular, the document
>    fails to adequately discuss:
>
>     a) the weaknesses of various key sizes [roadmap page 6],
>
>     b) key refreshment [roadmap page 6],
>
>     c) performance [roadmap pages 6-7],
>
>     d) interaction with other aspects of ESP [roadmap page 7],
>
>     e) explicit explanations of why fixed key sizes and other values
>        and methods should not be used [roadmap pages 7-8], and
>
>     f) security considerations [roadmap pages 6-8].
>
>    For examples of well-specified and complete documents that meet the
>    roadmap requirements, see:
>
>        draft-simpson-desx-02.txt
>        draft-simpson-des3v2-03.txt
>
>    The AD statement on this issue is both incomplete and unspecified:
>    "I believe Ted Ts'o and others have already addressed this issue."
>
>    I am not aware of any substantive and credible response that has
>    been made upon this issue.

Both of these points are assertions on your part. Your opinions of whether
or not the document conforms to the requirements (set out by the working
group itself) of the road map document are not shared by the rest of the
working group. Point by Point:

>     a) the weaknesses of various key sizes [roadmap page 6],

This we have already discussed.

>     b) key refreshment [roadmap page 6],

If we were talking about a document defining a particular cipher and that
cipher required that keys be changed more often then would normally be
anticipated in normal application of IPSEC, it would make sense to provide
a warning and appropriate advice. However the document in question does not
define any ciphers. It merely discusses how to use ciphers in the CBC mode
of operation.  A discussion of re-keying requirements is not necessary here
(and may even be out of order).

>     c) performance [roadmap pages 6-7],

This document is about how to use the ciphers and does not discuss the
performance of them.

>     d) interaction with other aspects of ESP [roadmap page 7],

This would be a issue for a cipher definition document, not this
document. In addition, for the ciphers described here, there are no known
issues as mentioned in the roadmap document.

>     e) explicit explanations of why fixed key sizes and other values
>        and methods should not be used [roadmap pages 7-8], and

This is an issue for a cipher definition document.

>     f) security considerations [roadmap pages 6-8].

The IESG considers that the Security Considerations section in the document
is acceptable, and the IESG and Working Group believe that it conforms to
the document roadmap.

> 5) Several algorithms are proprietary and/or have intellectual property
>    problems.  These problems are supposed to be listed, according to
>    the roadmap, but are not sufficiently detailed.
>
>    Other algorithms may be freely used, but this is not explicitly
>    stated.
>
>    For examples of well-specified and complete documents that meet the
>    roadmap requirements, see:
>
>        draft-simpson-desx-02.txt
>        draft-simpson-des3v2-03.txt
>
>    I am not aware of any substantive and credible response that has
>    been made upon this issue.

We do not prohibit the use of proprietary ciphers. We prohibit the use of a
proprietary cipher as mandatory to implement.  That isn't happening here.
The IESG considers the AD's response in this case to be a substantive and
credible response.

> 6) Several of the ciphers are not likely to be widely implemented,
>    making it impossible to advance to Draft or Full Standard.
>
>    The requirement for at least two independent and interoperable
>    implementations applies to all of the options and features of the
>    specification.  [RFC-2026 section 4.1.2]
>
>    The AD statement on this issue is both technically and procedurally
>    incorrect: "Describing how to use proprietary ciphers is completely
>    reasonable as long as those ciphers are not mandatory. As to whether
>    or not they are mandatory is an issue for a different document, not
>    this one."
>
>    The AD has confused mandatory implementation for conformance to a
>    specification with implementation requirements for advancement in
>    the standards process.
>
>    A product would have to have an "independent" implementation of all
>    (not just some) of these algorithms.  This is not possible with the
>    patented algorithms.  Inclusion of even the "shim" to these
>    proprietary algorithms should be specified in separate
>    "Informational" RFCs, as we have done in other WGs!
>
>    For example, see RFC-1974 and RFC-1993.
>
>    The IETF has a long-standing practice in this matter, after long
>    discussion and broad consensus, that should not be brushed aside
>    without considerable rationale.

In this, you assume that patented algorithms will never have more then one
implementation. This is not true. Multiple (licensed) implementations of
patented algorithms can and do exist. For example, there exist at least
three independent implementations of IDEA (2 in "C" and 1 in Java). IDEA is
patented, but the patent itself is available for licensing. It is true that
RSA Data Security has traditionally avoided licensing the RSA patent,
encouraging people to license a software toolkit. However RSA is only
patented in the US and other implementations exist outside of the US, such
as SSLeay. RSA is not mentioned in the document, but it may have lent to
your confusion on this point.

When it comes time to advance this document to Draft Standard we will have
to determine whether or not multiple implementations of all of the ciphers
exist and we will remove those for which we fail to find multiple
implementations, as we do with other documents.

This objection is not valid for preventing a document from becoming a
Proposed Standard.

> 7) Including multiple ciphers in the document makes it difficult or
>    impossible to advance.  We have often had this problem with "kitchen
>    sink" options documents in other WGs.
>
>    The AD statement on this issue is both incorrect and incompetent:
>    "Your comments here are anecdotal based on experiences with
>    unrelated documents."
>
>    Any philosopher can tell you that intellect, reason, and proof of
>    existence itself are all "anecdotal based on experiences".
>
>    The documents are all related, in that they have been IETF WG
>    documents.  The advancement processes have been related, in that
>    they have been IETF processes.
>
>    And probably more importantly, I have a heck of lot more experience
>    in writing and advancing IETF documents than the AD.

This is your opinion, one not shared by the working group consensus. A
trade-off had to be made between having many similar documents (one for
each cipher) or one slightly more complicated document for all. Given that,
the whole area of how to perform CBC for a cipher is not at all
controversial. The working group decided to combine them into one document.

It is well within the purview of the working group to decide to do this.

> 8) The document should not be advanced as a Proposed Standard, as
>    several of the algorithms have insufficient analysis to be "blessed"
>    by the IETF standardization process.  Some are less than 2 years
>    old, and have no independent analysis.
>
>    This is especially important in that Triple DES [RFC-1851] was not
>    published as a Proposed Standard, but instead was Experimental,
>    expressly because the WG and IESG could not agree that there had
>    been enough analysis and that implementations would be done.
>
>    Moreover, DESX was not published even as Experimental.
>
>    Yet, 3DES was proposed over 19 years ago, and has numerous
>    independent analyses and is the basis for several international
>    banking standards; while DESX was proposed over 15 years ago, and
>    has a couple of independent analyses, and has been implemented in
>    numerous products.
>
>    Both 3DES and DESX have been awaiting publication as Proposed
>    Standards for over 3 years.

This is not an issue for optional ciphers. This document is about how to
use CBC for these ciphers and does not include in its mission a discussion
of cryptographic analysis or strength.

> 9) Much of the figures, formatting, quotations, and text in this
>    document is plagiarized, without my permission, from
>    non-standards-track RFCs, internet-drafts and other contributions
>    that I have written and for which I retain copyright.  There has
>    been no express nor implied grant of rights to create derivative
>    works by any other author.
>
>    Specifically, sections 2.1, 2.3 (3DES), and 2.6 (3DES) must be
>    removed in their entirety.
>
>    I noted this to the current WG Chairs on the very day that draft
>    -00 was posted, but they have chosen to ignore this complaint.
>
>    This is especially important to me in that the technical errors in
>    this document, including those listed in (1), (2), and (3), are
>    completely contrary to the purpose and use of 3DES.
>
>    RFC-2026 does not permit inclusion by reference of works that exist
>    only as drafts.
>
>    RFC-2026 does not permit derivative works until RFC publication; and
>    even then, the ISoc Copyright notice only applies to
>    "standards-related" documents.
>
>    It would be likely to garner legal attention to "derive" a new
>    IETF standard from a proprietary protocol posted as an
>    internet-draft, and/or published as Informational, by taking the
>    text in its entirety and making minor modifications to the
>    authorship and acknowledgements.
>
>    Both 3DES and DESX have been awaiting publication as Proposed
>    Standards for over 3 years.
>
>    If you don't publish them as Proposed Standards, then you don't get
>    to use them in other works.
>
>    Why is it that so many folks like my writing so much, that they take
>    my words in their entirety, but my work isn't good enough to be
>    published with my own name on it?

You are concerned about authorship and acknowledgement; I am charged by the
IETF with the administration of process. The output of a working group,
according to IETF tradition as codified in RFC 2026 and its predecessors,
must be a document which reflects the consensus of the participants, and
must be edited by its author or editor in accordance with their comments.
You specifically refused to do this, and as a result your draft was
rejected by the working group via its chair and replaced with one which
adhered to our process. Your contribution to that is acknowledged in the
published RFC:

8. Acknowledgments

   Much of the information provided here originated with various ESP-DES
   documents authored by Perry Metzger and William Allen Simpson,
   especially the Security Considerations section.

   This document is also derived in part from previous works by Jim
   Hughes, those people that worked with Jim on the combined DES-
   CBC+HMAC-MD5 ESP transforms, the ANX bakeoff participants, and the
   members of the IPsec working group.

   Thanks to Rob Glenn for assisting with the nroff formatting.

Let's discuss the allegedly plagiarized text. You provided the text to us
to review, roughly the equivalent of a page, and in addition Vern Paxson
used wdiff to independently extract it. It consists of two parts: a number
of general statements about CBC and triple DES, and an ASCII art depiction
of the outer-CBC three-key triple-DES diagram.

We observe that equivalent diagrams show up in standard references on the
subject, such as Bruce Schneier's "Applied Cryptography: Second Edition",
Figure 15.1. The diagram in this book is the same as the one in the
-ciph-04 document, with the exception that the -ciph-04 diagram is in
ASCII.  There aren't really too many ways to visually represent the
concept. We therefore consider that the diagram does not represent
intellectual property on your part.

We further observe that the observations in the allegedly plagiarized text
are not earth-shaking. Yes, the language is very similar to your drafts
(though not quite identical). But we do not believe that the observations
represent intellectual property on your part, only the specific set of
words in which they are set forth.

We can and do reference non-RFC documents when we refer to outside work;
consider the plethora of documents referencing ITU, ISO, and journal
publications. The IETF certainly did not invent or define 3DES nor DESX.

And finally, we observe that your opinion on the matter of text re-use
among Internet Drafts differs from common IETF practice. Yes, RFC 2026
makes a specific statement about republication of RFCs. However, it is
essentially silent on temporary working group documents such as email and
internet drafts. It has been the standing practice of the IETF to edit
documents together, divide documents into pieces, incorporate pieces from
email and private submissions into working group drafts, and otherwise
freely move text around to achieve the working group objectives. This,
indeed, is *your* long-standing practice; it would take quite a while to
list the documents where I have been the working group chair, you have been
the working group editor, and you have done this at the direction of the
working group, or the other working group documents that have been written,
updated, or revised in this manner. Virtually every output of a working
group is a compilation of words from various sources, and the usual way
this is acknowledged is to simply list the names of the contributors -
which is prominently done in your case in this document.

It is our considered opinion that since you up until this point followed
common IETF practice regarding text, and indeed followed it with your
documents up to this point, and then started demanding that your documents
*not* be treated in this way, that you are aware of IETF practice and
condone it in the cases of other documents. This fact goes to the heart of
the question of plagiarism and misappropriation of copyright.

As a result of your appeal, however, we have made a minor change to the
internet draft boilerplate. We now require that internet drafts have, when
submitted, a sentence indicating whether the author/editor claims exclusive
copyright or permits the re-use of the text, so that we don't have to
address this in the future; we thank you for this service to the community.

>10) Other sections include material taken from my Standards Track
>    documents without attribution, citation, and reference.  This is
>    not permissible even under RFC-2026 "standards-related" documents.
>
>    In particular, where existing RFCs are extracted, I require the
>    formulae that I used in RFC-1331, and every later RFC:
>
>       "Much of the text in this document is taken from ... RFCs 1171
>        & 1172, by Drew Perkins of Carnegie Mellon University, and by
>        Russ Hobby of the University of California at Davis."
>
>    The AD response is ill informed:  "You received acknowledgement as
>    have others who contributed to the document. It is common and
>    accepted practice in the IETF for authors and editors to borrow work
>    from previous documents. It is customary to acknowledge the previous
>    document authors and editors. You appear to be asking for special
>    treatment."
>
>    On the contrary, it was common and accepted practice for IETF drafts
>    to be published as RFCs within a few months of their inception.
>    Derived works were made from the RFCs.  Full citation and credit was
>    given for authorship.  I am asking for the same treatment.
>
>    The IETF has a long-standing practice in this matter, after long
>    discussion and broad consensus, that should not be brushed aside
>    without considerable rationale.

You have not identified the RFCs involved. It also is not clear that
specific wording is required for an acknowledgement; you are acknowledged
as a previous editor of the document.

>11) The purported "authors" are merely editors, exclusively using
>    others' work, but taking primary credit for it.
>
>    Note that the technical errors show that they lack even a basic
>    understanding of the technical details.
>
>    The listed persons should clearly be labeled "editors".

It is true that the authors used some text from other sources; they say
that they did in the acknowledgements. However, they also wrote a
significant portion of the text. It seems to me that we are arguing about
what shade of gray is dark enough to constitute black or light enough to
constitute white.

>12) I further object that such a flawed document would be expedited,
>    when other documents that _are_ referenced (3DES and DESX and CBCS
>    and others) have not been issued for Last Call after _years_ of
>    waiting!

The working group is within its purview to advance this document. This is
an example of you differing with the consensus. By the way, neither the
working group nor the IESG is required to last call your documents at all,
as they are not working group documents. You claim exclusive rights to your
documents, and have refused to change them even though the working group
consensus disagreed with your opinion. Both of these are inconsistent with
our process and expectation regarding working group documents. Due to your
actions, the working group was long ago forced to discontinue considering
your documents for standardization.

Many of your objections are cases where you disagree with the consensus.
In the absence of clear technical evidence of error, our process recognizes
such objections, but those objections do not prohibit advancement.

>13) One sentence in "Document Roadmap" should be changed to
>      "the [DES-Detroit] and [3DES] documents."
>
>    (The grammer should be fixed, too.)  This was the only reference to
>    [CBC], and thus it can be eliminated from the References:
>
>      Authentication Algorithm documents.  Examples of this document are
>      the [DES-Detroit] and [CBC] documents.
>
>    The 3DES reference, currently in the Acknowledgements, should be
>    fixed (the <> changed to draft-simpson-esp-des3v2 or its RFC number)
>    and moved to the References section, or all references to 3DES should
>    be eliminated:
>
>     .  3DES: this is <the Triple-DES shim document>.
>
>    Some other citations in the Acknowledgements are never referenced in
>    the body, and should be deleted:
>
>      .  CAST: this is draft-ietf-ipsec-esp-cast-128-cbc-00.txt, as revised
>         to relate to this document.
>
>      .  HUGHES: this is draft-ietf-ipsec-esp-des-md5-03.txt
>
>    The remaining references in the Acknowledgements are duplicative of
>    the References, and should be removed.
>
>    The roadmap acknowledgements and references are completely out of
>    date.  The original outline of this document was written by Rodney
>    and Naganand and I, with some input by others at the Detroit ANX
>    workshop.  Indeed, I came to the workshop to work on this document!
>
>    The so-called "hughes" draft of December 1996 was principally based on
>    my text from earlier drafts, including the Simpson+Wagner that is
>    still awaiting publication.  Jim Hughes was tapped by Lambert (after
>    several others turned him down) to "take over" editing my documents
>    without my permission.
>
>    The term "shim" was mine, as were the original DES and 3DES shim
>    internet-drafts.
>
>    The CAST document (and others) was in turn based on my shim drafts.
>
>    I would like the acknowledgements to be re-written, along these
>    lines:
>
>        Layering the documents was originally proposed by William Allen
>        Simpson, and the contents of this document corresponds to the
>        sections and requirements in RFC-1828, RFC-1829, RFC-1850 and
>        RFC-1851, and includes wording from later "shim" drafts for DES,
>        3DES, and DESX.  Additional wording was suggested by Hugh
>        Daniel, Cheryl Madson, Roy Periera, ....
>
>        [all references to unpublished or work in progress documents
>        should be deleted].

A historical note:

The Hughes draft reference above was explicitly written to replace your
work at the direction of the working group chairs after you refused to edit
your document to make changes required by the working group. You asserted
then that you owned the copyright on your document and therefore reserved
change control to yourself.

>14) The [ESPCBC] references in "Domain of Interpretation for ISAKMP"
>    are all in a section (4.4.4) that should be moved to IANA
>    Considerations.  The numbers should all be referenced as listed for
>    other "reserved" values, such as: 4.4.4.10 "The ESP_RC4 type is
>    reserved for RC4."  (there is a trailing "p" on that line that
>    should be eliminated.)
>
>    Indeed, this type of document is precisely the kind that IANA
>    Considerations was intended to affect!
>

This is an editorial comment about a different document.

>15) ...-ciph-null-00.txt
>    Actually, it is a matter of record that on May 15, 1997, I named the
>    "null encryption" cipher, and insisted that it not be included in
>    the base set.  But as you may note in that message, I quoted
>    previous messages, and encryptionless ESP had been under discussion
>    in the WG.  The acknowledgements in the document giving credit to a
>    later workshop are completely bogus.
>
>    I request that the first paragraph be changed to:
>
>        Encryptionless ESP was suggested at various times by Steve
>        Bellovin and William Allen Simpson.  Steve Bellovin provided the
>        text for ....
>

Again, this isn't about the CBC document.

>16) ...-ciph-des-expiv-02.txt should not be published.  DES has been
>    cracked.  It is not of sufficient strength for "blessing" as an IETF
>    Standard, and should not advance on the standards track.
>
>    There is strong consensus in the security community for retiring
>    DES, and recommending only those ciphers that have a minimum of 75
>    bits of strength.
>
>    Instead, publish:
>        draft-simpson-des-as-00.txt
>        draft-simpson-cbc-01.txt
>        draft-simpson-desx-02.txt
>        draft-simpson-des3v2-03.txt

Again not relevant to the CBC document, and not justified. The IETF has not
made the decision to not publish standards that make use of DES. A
suggestion has been made to consider the use of DES historical in view of
the EFF's DES-cracking experiment a year or so ago, but no formal action
has resulted.

>17) ...-ciph-des-expiv-02.txt
>    The Security Considerations bracketed [aside] should be removed.
>
>    And it always pisses me off that Phil Karn, the founder of the IPSec
>    WG, is forgotten!
>
>    The Acknowledgements should use the same formula that we agreed on
>    long ago for RFC-1331, to wit:
>
>        Much of the text in this document is taken from RFC-1828,
>        RFC-1829, RFC-1851 and RFC-1852, by Phil Karn, Perry Metzger,
>        and William Allen Simpson, especially ....
>

Not relevant to the CBC document.

>18) ...-auth-hmac-md5-...
>    ...-auth-hmac-sha1-...
>    Sure enough, the credit for my text, much of which is unchanged from
>    RFC-1828 and RFC-1851, is now attributed to Hughes.
>
>    The Acknowledgements should use the same formula that we agreed on
>    long ago for RFC-1331, to wit:
>
>        Much of the text in this document is taken from RFC-1828,
>        and RFC-1851, by Perry Metzger and William Allen Simpson.
>        Special thanks to the people that worked with Jim Hughes on the
>        combined ....

Not relevant to the CBC document.

Bill, you desire a prominent place in the history of the IPSEC standards.
However, the IESG believes that you do not deserve such a prominent place
simply because you wrote a paragraph here or coined a term there. Your
behavior in the IPSEC working group has been in general reprehensible, and
has contributed very much to the difficulty in getting this standard
published.  Some of the documents that were written that mirrored work
originally done by you were commissioned (particularly the Hughes
documents) after and because you submitted drafts but then refused to edit
them to meet the needs of the working group. You have used - and in this
appeal you use - the threat of legal action where the other several
thousand people contributing to the IETF's work use reason and debate to
achieve a result.

The IESG does not condone this, and sees no reason to give you special
credit here.

---

From: Fred Baker <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 01 Mar 1999 18:00:00 -0800

Bill:

Duly noted.

2.2 Key Size

   Notes:

8. Acknowledgments

A historical note: