From: The IESG[SMTP:iesg-secretary@ietf.org] Sent: Thursday, October 15, 1998 10:27 AM Cc: RFC Editor; Internet Architecture Board; ietf-open-pgp@imc.org Subject: Protocol Action: OpenPGP Message Format to Proposed Standard

The IESG has approved the Internet-Draft 'OpenPGP Message Format' as a Proposed Standard. This document is the product of the An Open Specification for Pretty Good Privacy Working Group.

The IESG contact persons are Jeffrey Schiller and Marcus Leech.

Technical Summary

This document defines the formats used by "Phil's Pretty Good Privacy" otherwise known as PGP.

Working Group Summary

After serious discussion the working group came to consensus on this document.

Protocol Quality

The formats used here are the result of a second generation engineering effort to define an efficient, one pass format for representing information encrypted or signed with PGP. They were reviewed by Jeffrey I. Schiller for the IESG.

Note to RFC Editor: Please add the following as an IESG Note:

This document defines many tag values, yet it doesn't describe a mechanism for adding new tags (for new features). Traditionally the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) handles the allocation of new values for future expansion and RFCs usually define the procedure to be used by the IANA. However there are subtle (and not so subtle) interactions that may occur in this protocol between new features and existing features which result in a significant reduction in over all security. Therefore this document does not define an extension procedure. Instead requests to define new tag values (say for new encryption algorithms for example) should be forwarded to the IESG Security Area Directors for consideration or forwarding to the appropriate IETF Working Group for consideration.

========================================================== Mark Leighton Fisher Thomson Consumer Electronics fisherm@indy.tce.com Indianapolis, IN "Their walls are built of cannon balls, their motto is 'Don't Tread on Me'"