Re: Remove SHOULD for elliptic curve groups in IKEv2

["D. Hugh Redelmeier" <hugh@mimosa.com>]

| From: "The Purple Streak (Hilarie Orman)" <ho@alum.mit.edu>

| In my previous note about published work on using elliptic curve
| groups for cryptography, I did not mean to imply that existing
| patents are invalid.  What I meant to say is that the patents do
| not cover the basic algorithms, nor do they cover all good
| implementation methods.  There is plenty of early published
| work covering the ideas.  It's not nearly as all-encompassing
| as the RSA or DH patent situation was.

Is there a clear survey of this that one could trust?  I've heard
several people say that all the good stuff is patented.

I am part of the FreeS/WAN team (as are Michael and Henry).  I don't
make the decisions, but I do think that EC is interesting.  I don't
imagine that we'd include implementations covered by patents.  We
might also reject EC due to lack of confidence -- it hasn't yet had
the testing of the modp groups.

Hugh Redelmeier
hugh@mimosa.com  voice: +1 416 482-8253