Document: "Using the Boneh-Franklin and Boneh-Boyen identity-based encryption algorithms with the Cryptographic Message Syntax" (draft-ietf-smime-bfibecms-07.txt) Reviewer: Eric Gray Review Date: 10/25/2007 IETF LC End Date: 10/25/2007 Summary: ======= This draft is almost ready for publishing as a Proposed Standard. I have some questions and comments below. Comments: ======== Question: In the second bullet, of section 1.2 on page 3, what does the expression "secure distribution" mean? Is the PPS an authenticate-able source, does it only distribute the "publicly sharable cryptographic material" to authenticated recipients or does it use secure connections in the distribution process? >From the discussion in section 7.1 (second paragraph), it looks as if a PPS is an authenticate-able source. Should this be stated more clearly? ________________________________________________________________ [DER] is listed as an informative reference, yet text on page 5 says - "the structure MUST be DER encoded [DER] ..." This should warrant a Normative reference, since it seems it is necessary to have this information in order to implement the step described in this text. A similar argument can be made for each of the following: ASN1 (see reference toward the top of page 3) IBCS (see references at the top of page 8) IBE (see - in particular - process step references - section 4, bullet 1, page 7 section 5, bullets 3 through 5, page 8) _________________________________________________________________ NITs: ==== There are format problems (premature line-wrap) that should be fixed prior to publication (this probably can be handled as an RFC Editor's note). See, for example, numbered bullets on page 6 (number 2 in the first set, and number 4 in the second).