May 11, 2007

H6.3 and the clash of worlds -- IESG v. iPods --- Security for the throwaway generation

Thoughts from the modern world:

My incompetence with electronics and computers has always been offset by help from friends in the software industry. The lesson I learned from trying to work with an older-generation iPod is different. Technologies of different generations don't totally understand each other -- just like humans of different generations. However, in the case of electronics, generations pass in a matter of months, if not weeks.

He suggests that iPods don't talk to cars unless they are both up to date. Gadgets now work in generations!

Meanwhile, the IESG -- Internet Engineering Something Group -- is resisting the OpenPGP community from standardising its protocol because the document isn't good enough to be implemented from the document itself. (As discussed in their open maillist, I'll spare you the details....)

Who's right in this clash of worldviews? The market is always right. Although the IESG has a noble endeavour and a mission derived from the long history of lock-out by major corporations, the market moves too fast for such things.

We as a marketplace simply accept that some consumers, some developers, some standards will lose out. Because they weren't fast enough. OpenPGP faces that battle, and in the end, the long delay from 1997 or so until now has caused a fair cost on its adoption. (Yes, that was our fault, we didn't write it fast enough.)

Or, in contrast, those that did implement OpenPGP and PGP (Cryptix did both at insistence of myself, for example) didn't wait for the standard. PGP itself has migrated seriously, with losses at each step; we are now on protocol version 4 and this is distinctly different to protocol version 1!

This then means we have to be flexible. Today's hypothesis then is directly towards the security protocol industry entering the throwaway world:

H6.4: Design One to Throwaway. You Will Anyway.

Carefully partition your protocol to be replaced. Not some portion of it (see Hypothesis #1 -- the One True Cipher Suite) but the whole sodding thing. If you like, get blatant about it and slot in ROT13 with a checksum made from your cat's ink dippings and a key exchange from putty and pigeon post.

Likely your application will not need real security for the first 1000 users or so (pick you own number here, or read up on GP). Once you've proven the business model, then it's time to secure, and start the tortuous and expensive process of rolling out a new protocol.

Here however note carefully: you are taking on a risk on behalf of the business, and the cryptoguild will massacre you! Make sure that you tell your boss and his boss and her boss too, but do it quietly.

... and we need to replace Dodgy Crypto Protocol #1 when the heat starts

Don't just tell them, write it down, email it to the auditors, tattoo it on their daughters' foreheads in a secret code that only they know.

Meanwhile, design Well Needed Protocol #2 over your private weekends. Tell your spouse you need to save the world, or better yet, make him do it. Just make sure you are ready with a replacement in advanced form.

Posted by iang at May 11, 2007 09:13 AM | TrackBack
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