[saag] Re: draft update on discussion on crypto practices at IETF

On 22 Jan 2025, at 0:51, Eliot Lear wrote:

> Thanks for the update. I think most of the draft looks okay.  However, this paragraph should go:
>
>> As stated above, Internet Drafts are a method for defining cryptographic components. This method is controversial with some members of the IETF community because drafts were originally designed to be impossible to access six months after publication, and wording based on the assumption of that inaccessibility still appears automatically in current Internet Drafts. However, using Internet Drafts as stable references for code points in IANA registries has been allowed for at least 20 years. When a draft is used as a reference for a code point, a specific version of a draft is specified; that is, the filename of the draft must end in a two-digit number.
>
> I don't want this draft held up over a debate upon which we will likely not find consensus.

I think finding consensus in the Security Area on this is extremely important, given that we already are using them in our registries.

>   Also, we already have a working group chartered to address this point.  It would be inappropriate to undercut their work.

There is a *proposed* WG. There has been very little interest shown in actually forming the WG. The use of drafts in registries for cryptographic components is not even part of the proposed charter. Even if the WG is formed and there is enough interest to move the work forward, I personally would object to that WG making rules for the entire IETF: different areas should be able to make their own rules about what is and is not appropriate in the registries that are for each area's work.

--Paul Hoffman

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