Subject: Analysis of version negotiation

From: "Martin Thomson" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2021 14:25:56 +1100

Hey everyone,

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HXu7LoMP8Z30JkHyMOuVOtG5W9AFOQtsL8vuSbFxXUw/edit?usp=sharing is my crude attempt at an analysis of the security of the version negotiation draft, including some suggestions that might make the protocol more efficient.

I will you reach your own conclusion, but I found some cuts that can be made in the design.  Not as many as I expected originally though.  I did just realize that an entire component can come out, but I haven't edited it out yet; I'll leave that in case others disagree with my assessment there.

It's long and complicated, sadly.  That's the one thing that I might regret most about the decision to defer solving this problem properly in the first place.  In any case, I hope that this is a useful contribution to the discussion.

Cheers,
Martin