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re. ASN.1 integers (was Re: proposed certificate format)
At 04:10 2/28/96, Bill Stewart wrote:
>>For example, there is no simple int32 in ASN.1. To achieve that, you have
>>to start with an INTEGER and then add a bell/whistle which limits its
>>range -- but you can't just limit its number of bits -- you specify its
>>min and max value, and then have to decide what an internal 0 really means.
>>So, people rarely limit their INTEGERs -- and the resulting code has to
>>stumble over structures which can accomodate 400,000 bit integers, even when
>>the application will ralph on any integer over 12 bits.
>
>If we're not going to limit applications to int16 and uint32,
>I'd like to be able to use arbitrary long numbers in any application
>involving crypto, where "arbitrary" means "at least up to 4096 bits";
>I don't particularly see a need for more than 32K-bit numbers, but who knows.
I wasn't talking about things like RSA moduli. I was noting that the *only*
INTEGER construct [unless you go the additional step to limit its range]
is indefinite in length. If I'm building a data structure with a bunch
of integers, they're not all going to be RSA moduli. All I was asking for
was a basic int32 primitive. A BYTE_STRING primitive can take care of all
the huge integers, bit strings, etc.
- Carl
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