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0xbadcafebeeyesterday at 7:56 AM1 replyview on HN

If you change your software to comply with "middleboxes" that don't follow standards, then you're admitting your own software is faulty, not theirs. In this case, though, the TLS v1.3 standard actually carved out a portion of the standard itself just to comply with shitty middleware. You know what that says to me? Standards are pointless. Just make a middlebox, make it do whatever the hell you want, and everyone else will bend over to support you.

This is yet one more reason why we need software building codes and regulations. If software people are unwilling to protect their own standards, the government should. It might fix the 20-year mistake of allowing "the web" to become a defacto network transport layer and application platform.


Replies

tialaramexyesterday at 1:29 PM

No. This just underscored that if you don't encrypt stuff them idiots will break it. Notice that they didn't break any parts of TLS 1.2 which were encrypted, everything they broke is the unencrypted stuff, and so by encrypting more stuff (everything except client hello) in TLS 1.3 we improved that, and then by encrypting even more stuff in ECH (Encrypted Client Hello) we expect to improve it again.

Government regulation is good in that it can work, but it's terrible in that almost every other choice would be better if it works. For TLS 1.3 we made choices which work, if we'd waited for your hypothetical government intervention we'd still be using TLS 1.2 and Trump would presumably be collecting an inaugural "Super good Bank Encryption Champion" trophy from EDCO or somebody who fought against TLS 1.3 because it meant they'd have to actually do a good job.