Subject: Section 3.2 of secsh-auth-kbdinteract-01

From: Darren Moffat <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2000 19:28:58 -0800 (PST)

>Section 3.2:

>   The server SHOULD limit the length of the name and prompt fields to
>   30 characters.  No restrictions are placed on the instruction
>field.
>
>30 characters could be too little.
>
>  "[email-masked]'s passcode for SecurID auth:"
>
>especially considering section 3.3 considerations

Agreed where did 30 come from ? (I'll take a wild guess here and assume
it is the number of chars that can be displayed on the screen of a PalmPilot
using the default font? (I checked ;-))

Maybe it means a better distinction between the intended use of the
instruction and prompt fields is needed.

For example code that does this:

	1. Enable logins and Continue [default]\n
	2. Continue without Enabling logins\n
	3. Only Enable logins\n
	4. Cancel\n
	Enter option number or return:

In this example are the menu items instruction or part of the prompt ? 

I would code this with an empty name and the menu choices as
instructions with the "Enter option number or return: " as a prompt,
but that is 32 chars just for the prompt - so I still loose (since the
wording prohibits the client from adding the ": "). But it is also
concievable that the whole thing is the prompt with embedded newlines.

30 seems very low considering that in a large percentage of cases ssh
will actually be used to access remote systems from devices emulating
(at least) an 80x25 terminal session (eg xterm like).

--
Darren J Moffat

---

From: Martin Forssen <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2000 11:19:32 +0100 (MET)

On 18 Dec, Darren Moffat wrote:
> Agreed where did 30 come from ? (I'll take a wild guess here and
> assume it is the number of chars that can be displayed on the screen
> of a PalmPilot using the default font? (I checked ;-))

I think I already have countered this example, ut I just wanted to
comment on the number 30. The number 30 is just an arbitrary number and
I am not aware of any systems which actually enforces those limits.

	/MaF