30 ms·

I think I remember this. The problem was you we're insisting to add in an insecure encryption algorithm into the crypto library. They didn't want to because th

I think I remember this. The problem was you we're insisting to add in an insecure encryption algorithm into the crypto library. They didn't want to because they didn't want to add an insecure algorithm to the library to encourage its use. The best bet is to use another library whose goals are different. This was explained a few times. Tbh I'm on the side of the library developers here. If you want to be the official encryption library, you probably want to avoid broken encryption algorithms. Leave the backwords compability encryption to other libaries, designed for the task.

izacus 6y ago
I'm not sure how you could remember this since I wasn't insisting on anything like that and I wasn't even opening a ticket on any official bug tracker - I think you mistook me for someone else. I took extra care not to demand anything and the conversation was mostly on IRC and some specialized subreddits. Also not being able to decrypt data older than a few years with safe Rust libraries is a bit of a strange way to do security - if anything, Rust is perfect for parsing files in secure manner. My concrete use case was processing PDFs which tend to be signed with older certificate algorithms and the idea that being able to verify signatures on those files encourages insecurity is just strange. The only solution offered was to use OpenSSL via C bindings which (besides not compiling at all on Windows) is a security nightmare. In any case, I accept that library (and core language) developers can decide that Rust won't be a language that's usable for verifying and processing data formats that are older than couple of years. What I find it harder to accept is being personally insulted for having a use case that doesn't fit into community's perfect world. That didn't happen in any other communities in my career.
- mD5pPxMcS6fVWKE 6y ago
  Coulnd't all sides be satisfied if only signature verification code was added, but not signing?
- kbenson 6y ago
  > Also not being able to decrypt data older than a few years with safe Rust libraries is a bit of a strange way to do security Are you saying there's no Rust libraries/modules that can decrypt these formats, no pure rust libraries/modules without unsafe, or no support in core? If I'm not mistaken, core is no protection from usage either, core makes use of unsafe in ways they deem safe but unable to be ensured by the language.

izacus 6y ago

I'm not sure how you could remember this since I wasn't insisting on anything like that and I wasn't even opening a ticket on any official bug tracker - I think you mistook me for someone else. I took extra care not to demand anything and the conversation was mostly on IRC and some specialized subreddits. Also not being able to decrypt data older than a few years with safe Rust libraries is a bit of a strange way to do security - if anything, Rust is perfect for parsing files in secure manner. My concrete use case was processing PDFs which tend to be signed with older certificate algorithms and the idea that being able to verify signatures on those files encourages insecurity is just strange. The only solution offered was to use OpenSSL via C bindings which (besides not compiling at all on Windows) is a security nightmare. In any case, I accept that library (and core language) developers can decide that Rust won't be a language that's usable for verifying and processing data formats that are older than couple of years. What I find it harder to accept is being personally insulted for having a use case that doesn't fit into community's perfect world. That didn't happen in any other communities in my career.

mD5pPxMcS6fVWKE 6y ago
Coulnd't all sides be satisfied if only signature verification code was added, but not signing?
kbenson 6y ago
> Also not being able to decrypt data older than a few years with safe Rust libraries is a bit of a strange way to do security Are you saying there's no Rust libraries/modules that can decrypt these formats, no pure rust libraries/modules without unsafe, or no support in core? If I'm not mistaken, core is no protection from usage either, core makes use of unsafe in ways they deem safe but unable to be ensured by the language.