peter@adpm.de wrote:

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  - allow padding to be omitted (totally, not only parts)

Why?

To allow using the keys encoded by other implementations that do not generate the padding (e.g. Perl's Convert::Base32). (e.g. in a mass-rollout that sets userPassword using LDIF)

We must reject this on security grounds. See RFC3548 Security Considerations. https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3548#page-10

Also, as already noted in the code comments, allowing partial bytes would open a subliminal channel allowing information leaks.

If Perl's encoder is being so careless then that is a security vulnerability.

The other 3 points on this ticket have been committed in master. I consider this ticket resolved.