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Subject: RE: [office] [OASIS Issue Tracker] Commented: (OFFICE-3703) Proposal: ODF 1.3 Protection-Key Enhancements


Andre,

An after-thought.

If there is something that appears to be novel in the proposal for ODF 1.3 protection-key enhancements, perhaps it should be placed in a disclosure journal somewhere so that no one else can patent it.  

Meanwhile, if there is an existing applicable patent, it would be good to know what it could possibly be and what kind of claim to search for.

 - Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: office@lists.oasis-open.org [mailto:office@lists.oasis-open.org] On Behalf Of Dennis E. Hamilton
Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2012 17:51
To: office@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: RE: [office] [OASIS Issue Tracker] Commented: (OFFICE-3703) Proposal: ODF 1.3 Protection-Key Enhancements

Andre,

I am not clear what claims one should search for,

 1. The proposal does not introduce any cryptographic algorithms, since encryption and decryption are not involved.

 2. The use of SHA1, PBKDF2 with HMAC-SHA-1, and assumption that cryptographically-random salts are producible is already required in the ODF specification, although not all of them directly for creation of protection-key values.

 3. The only novelties I can think of are 

    3.1 AUTHZ160 use of a non-password-based 160 bit value in places where an SHA1 hash is expected.  This is the same as intentionally using a hash-like value that has no password.  There's nothing about how authentication might be accomplished.  It is not even specified that authentication must be possible.  (Although I sketch one possibility in the proposal, and say more about SHA1DKX in a comment, it is not part of the proposed text for ODF 1.3).

    3.2 SHA1DK derivation of the iteration count from the first byte of the PBKDF2 salt.  This is simply a mathematical technique for using only one byte to select from a list of increasingly large values that has the technical advantage of not growing so fast as 2^n.  This is functionally no different than taking a few fixed bytes from the salt for holding a count value.  SHA1DK is essentially a minor, custom parameterization of PBKDF2 in PKCS#5.  SHA1DK is equivalent to how PBKDF2 is used for password-based key generation in ODF 1.2 Part 3 Package Encryption. 

 4. In the note about SHA1DKX, the further addition of a context value of some kind to make the result dependent on a particular use case is apparently not novel, since I have seen it mentioned several times in the discussions on the Internet about the problems that the LinkedIn hack (so-called) could have been mitigated.
 
Given that, what should a patent search be looking for?  It would have to be something not already being used in the ODF specification, presumably, as well as perhaps having been considered novel at some previous time and patented then.  

What are your suggestions for patents to search for? 

 - Dennis

PS: Of course, those of us who participate in the production of an ODF 1.3 that has these provisions will be automatically bound under the OASIS IP regime that applies.  I suppose that might inspire the participants with deeper pockets to engage in a patent search to ensure that there is no danger from outside of the obligated participants.

-----Original Message-----
From: office@lists.oasis-open.org [mailto:office@lists.oasis-open.org] On Behalf Of OASIS Issues Tracker
Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2012 16:58
To: office@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: [office] [OASIS Issue Tracker] Commented: (OFFICE-3703) Proposal: ODF 1.3 Protection-Key Enhancements


    [ http://tools.oasis-open.org/issues/browse/OFFICE-3703?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=30615#action_30615 ] 

Andre Rebentisch commented on OFFICE-3703:
------------------------------------------

Sounds interesting. Prior to inclusion any proposal should be professionally checked for third party patent infringements. Applied cryptography is mined territory and in this case overriding third party patents would fundamentally break interoperability of implementations. I am aware that often the prospect of US triple damages is used to avoid patent searches by industry but here the standards has to be kept clean.
(Visible to TC List role)
> Proposal: ODF 1.3 Protection-Key Enhancements
> ---------------------------------------------
>
>                 Key: OFFICE-3703
>                 URL: http://tools.oasis-open.org/issues/browse/OFFICE-3703
>             Project: OASIS Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) TC
>          Issue Type: Improvement
>          Components: Security, Table, Text
>    Affects Versions: ODF 1.0, ODF 1.0 (second edition), ODF 1.1, ODF 1.2, ODF 1.2 COS 1
>         Environment: This is an enhancement, described in terms of changes to OpenDocument-v1.2-os.
>            Reporter: Dennis Hamilton
>            Assignee: Dennis Hamilton
>             Fix For: ODF 1.3, ODF 1.3 CSD 01
>
>
>    The use of password hashes in easily-discovered XML element and attribute values is subject to compromise of the hashed password.  Although the use    of increasingly-stronger digest algorithms may lengthen the time required    for carrying out a brute-force attack on the hash, memorable passwords    remain subject to compromise and the attack becomes easier as processor    technology advances.  Recent (June 2012) reveal that there is an explosive growth in hacks involving the discovery of passwords that are authenticated by use of unsalted digest algorithms.
>    
>  In addition, the presence of hashes in plain sight in XML documents allows the digest value to be easily compared with the same digest value elsewhere, revealing worthy targets to an adversary.  In addition, the digest value is easily removed/replaced.  And an extracted digest value can be repurposed for malicious purposes.
>    
> This proposal introduces two protection-key digest algorithms, AUTHZ160 and SHA1DK that are intended to mitigate risks associated with use of digest algorithms and provision of the digests in plain view in XML documents.  AUTHZ160, the recommended new default, uses protection-keys that are not derived from a password at all.  They are 100% protection against discovery of an actual password known to the user by analysis of the protection-key alone.  SHA1DK uses an AUTHZ160-sized cryptographically-random salt and an iterative key derivation procedure that makes discovery of a password by repeated trials very costly.  (SHA1DK and an extension, SHA1DKX, can be used to create tear-off secret authenticators for AUTHZ160 protection keys, even though a protection-key that includes all of the SHA1DK result is password based.)

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