phc-discussions - Re: [PHC] PHC output specifics

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Date: Thu, 5 Mar 2015 18:33:22 +0000
From: Gregory Maxwell <gmaxwell@...il.com>
To: discussions@...sword-hashing.net
Subject: Re: [PHC] PHC output specifics

On Thu, Mar 5, 2015 at 6:24 PM, Marsh Ray <maray@...rosoft.com> wrote:
> From: Krisztián Pintér [mailto:pinterkr@...il.com]
>> i would recommend the algo specification be oblivious to the encoding, and treat the password as binary.
>
> Agree the function interface itself should be "8-bit clean", i.e., allow all possible octet values.
>
> However, most programmers using this API will have character string data. So at least some common recommended encoding is needed if we want there to be any chance at interoperability.

I agree. It should be binary clean, and have well defined behavior for
any sequence of octets. But it should also be specified that UTF-8 is
used. If you want to do something else, its up to you to specify for
your application whats going on (and most hope of interop is lost).

Please don't fail to specify an encoding and test vectors that use it.
Elsewhere this failure has resulted in people not thinking about it
and major problems have arisen.