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view twt_review.txt @ 11:bc100f494ca0
nearly done, still struggling with o-umlaut
| author | Henry S. Thompson <ht@inf.ed.ac.uk> |
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| date | Wed, 30 Apr 2025 16:12:05 +0100 |
| parents | |
| children | 9cb53ac26388 |
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*Summary* *Minor points* [this actually borders on the 'substantive', see the discussion under Appendix B. 4.2.1 This bullet "JSON-encode the array, producing [a] UTF-8 string" looks simple, but ended up confusing me for over an hour. For the rest of things to work, you must mean "Serialize the array to the corresponding utf-8-encoded byte sequence", but that's not exactly trivial in the JSON-native context you've adopted in this document. That is, at first I thought you should just include one extra step in the Disclosure construction, example, namely what the UTF-8 (byte) string looks like as (what RFC8259 calls) "UTF-8 encoded JSON text", immediately after the array creation display: ["_26bc4LT-ac6q2KI6cBW5es", "family_name", "Möbius"] (1) "[\"_26bc4LT-ac6q2KI6cBW5es\", \"family_name\", \"M\u00c3\u00b6bius\"]" (2) but that's really ugly and would be more likely to confuse than clarify. Note that in only the first 64bitURL Disclosure samples that you offer decodes to my guess (2)! And indeed what they _do_ decode to, that is '["_26bc4LT-ac6q2KI6cBW5es", "family_name", "Möbius"]' # 4d c3 b6 62 69 75 73 '["_26bc4LT-ac6q2KI6cBW5es", "family_name", "M\\u00f6bius"]' respectively, are non-trivially distinct, as in both Python and node.js these, as strings, correspond to two _different_ byte-sequences (the second is 4 bytes longer than the first and, if both are decoded as utf-8, to 5 more characters). It's true that they are both valid JSON texts, per RFC8259, but you have to apply a JSON parser to them to get to indistinguishable JSON objects. Apologies for this lengthy attempt to show where I think you've gotten in to trouble by specifying _algorithms_ in informal english, while more-or-less assuming, I'm guessing, some library functions in whatever language you're used to using. To address this problem, since you use "JSON-encode" a number of times in later sections, I would _strongly recommend_ that you a) Add the following to section 1.2, immediately after the definition of *base64url*: *JSON-encode* denotes the conversion of a JSON object to "JSON text" and encoding that text in UTF-8, as defined in RFC 8529. That is, mapping a JSON object to a UTF-8 byte sequence which when decoded and parsed will reconstruct an object indistinguishable from the original. b) Replace that problematic bullet, and the next, with * JSON-encode the array, producing a UTF-8 encoded byte sequence. * base64url-encode the resulting byte sequence. The resulting string is the Disclosure. c) Be careful never to use "string" when "(UTF-8) byte sequence" is meant, starting in 4.2.2 with The Disclosure string is created by JSON-encoding this array and base64url-encoding the resulting byte sequence as described in Section 4.2.1 d) In the second media type registration in 12.2 "represented as a JSON Object" -> 'represented as UTF-8 encoded "JSON text" as defined in RFC 8529' e) Include RFC 8529 in the 13.1 Appendix B. The above problem resurfaces here, with confusion between three possible interpretations, in the terms of RFC 8529, of what is displayed: * a JSON object, that is, structured data composed of instances of the six primitive types which JSON can represent. It is _not_ to be understood as string, byte sequence or file contents; * a possible JSON text for some JSON object. * a UTF-8 encoding of some JSON text, aka a "JSON encoding". The first figure is labelled as a JSON object, which is OK. But it is indistinguishable from one of the possible JSON texts corresponding to that object. The next figure purports to present two alternative "JSON encodings", the second of which is problematic. Its first line appears indistinguishable from that shown for the JSON object in the preceding figure, but is in fact different. In the first figure, construed as a "JSON text", the o-umlaut glyph denotes a single Unicode character in a six-character object member's value. Construed as depicting a JSON object, the o-umlaut denotes a single Unicode code-point (U+00F6), either in the abstract or in some implementation-dependent internal representation, part of an object member value. However in the second figure, second alternative, the o-umlaut corresponds to a _two_-byte UTF-8 sub-part of the JSON encoding of that value as a seven-byte UTF-8 byte sequence, either in some internal representation or an external stream or file. What to do? *Nits* 4. "(for those who celebrate)" will be anywhere from obscure to confusing for many readers from many cultures -- best to remove it. 4.2.1. "an UTF-8" -> "a UTF-8" [overtaken by 4.2.1 above] "However, the digest is calculated over the respective base64url-encoded value itself, which effectively signs" -> "Because the digest is calculated over the respective base64url-encoded value itself, this effectively signs" 4.3.1. I'd recommend "The bytes of the digest MUST" -> "The bytes of the sd_hash value MUST" 6. I have decoded a few of the Disclosures and they're fine, but you might want to ask a friendly 3rd party to double-check all the Disclosures and digests, at least here and in Appendix A. 9. "Security considerations in this section help achieve the following properties:" This confused me for a while. I think what you mean to say here is something like This spec aims to provide two security guarantees: *Selective Disclosure*: ... *Integrity*: ... The following sub-sections show how the various aspects of the design presented here combine to achieve this.
