of view to MD5 the same, but he noted that this isn't a problem in practice because humans don't get much information out of the presense of multiple spaces versus one space.
This is true for most text, like this message. But sometimes people send messages where spacing is VERY important: This is especially true of tables such as this one: Name Yes No Smith X Jones X Brown X Xyzzy X If the signature algorithm disregarded spaces, the X's could be moved from one column to the other without affecting the signature. I know that this information COULD have been represented as: Smith Yes Jones No Brown No Xyzzy Yes But sometimes people use the other format. Another solution is to surround all significant spaces with some other character, such as the vertical bar: |Name | Yes | No | |Smith | X | | |Jones | | X | |Brown | | X | |Xyzzy | X | | If this were done, an X could not be moved without affecting the signature even if tabs/spaces were insignificant. The point is that if whitespace is made insignificant, the users must be educated about it, and trained to use one of the two last formats instead of the first one. -- Yanek Martinson mthvax.cs.miami.edu!safe0!yanek uunet!medexam!yanek this address preferred -->> yanek@novavax.nova.edu <<-- this address preferred Phone (305) 765-6300 daytime FAX: (305) 765-6708 1321 N 65 Way/Hollywood (305) 963-1931 evenings (305) 981-9812 Florida, 33024-5819