Subject: Re: S/MIME v3.2 IDs key size text

From: "Denis Pinkas" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2008 11:51:41 +0100

>Steve:

>>A separate issue is whether such a signature is verified before or 
>>after the certificate itself is verified and whether one can 
>>persuade a CA to issue a certificate containing such a key.

>Indeed, this is the best solution.  Perhaps we should drop the max 
>size limit and discuss this point in the security considerations.

I was amazed by the following proposal :
"A receiving agent SHOULD be able to verify signatures with keys up to 16384 bits".

If we drop it, then there is no guidance anymore.

Reasonably, for any implementation, today:
"A receiving agent SHOULD be able to verify signatures with keys up to 2048 bits".

This does not prevent any implementation to support larger key sizes.

Denis

>Russ