Publicly Verifiable Nomcom Random Selection
RFC 2777
Document | Type |
RFC - Informational
(February 2000; No errata)
Obsoleted by RFC 3797
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Author | Donald Eastlake | ||
Last updated | 2013-03-02 | ||
Stream | IETF | ||
Formats | plain text html pdf htmlized bibtex | ||
Stream | WG state | (None) | |
Document shepherd | No shepherd assigned | ||
IESG | IESG state | RFC 2777 (Informational) | |
Consensus Boilerplate | Unknown | ||
Telechat date | |||
Responsible AD | (None) | ||
Send notices to | (None) |
Network Working Group D. Eastlake 3rd Request for Comments: 2777 Motorola Category: Informational February 2000 Publicly Verifiable Nomcom Random Selection Status of this Memo This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Copyright Notice Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2000). All Rights Reserved. Abstract This document describes a method for making random selections in such a way that the unbiased nature of the choice is publicly verifiable. As an example, the selection of the voting members of the IETF Nominations Committee from the pool of eligible volunteers is used. Similar techniques would be applicable to other cases. Acknowledgement Matt Crawford made major contributions to this document. Table of Contents 1. Introduction............................................2 2. General Flow of a Publicly Verifiable Process...........2 2.1 Determination of the Pool..............................2 2.2 Publication of the Algorithm...........................2 2.3 Publication of Selection...............................3 3. Randomness..............................................3 3.1 Sources of Randomness..................................3 3.2 Skew...................................................4 3.3 Entropy Needed.........................................4 4. A Suggested Precise Algorithm...........................5 5. Fully Worked Example....................................6 6. Security Considerations.................................7 7. Reference Code.........................................8 Appendix: History of NomCom Member Selection..............14 References................................................15 Author's Address..........................................15 Full Copyright Statement..................................16 Eastlake Informational [Page 1] RFC 2777 Verifiable Random Selection February 2000 1. Introduction Under the IETF rules, each year 10 persons are randomly selected from among the eligible persons who volunteer to be the voting members of the nominations committee (NomCom) to nominate members of the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) and the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) [RFC 2727]. The number of eligible volunteers in recent years has varied in the approximate range of 40 to 60. It is highly desireable that the random selection of the voting NomCom be done in a unimpeachable fashion so that no reasonable charges of bias or favoritism can be brought. This is for the protection of the IETF from bias and protection of the administrator of the selection (currently, the appointed non-voting NomCom chair) from suspicion of bias. A method such that public information will enable any person to verify the randomness of the selection meets this criterion. This document gives an example of such a method. 2. General Flow of a Publicly Verifiable Process In general, a selection of NomCom members publicly verifiable as unbiased or similar selection could follow the three steps given below. 2.1 Determination of the Pool First, you need to determine the pool from which the selection is to be made. Volunteers are solicited by the appointed (non-voting) NomCom chair. Their names are then passed through the IETF Secretariat to check eligibility. (Current eligibility criteria relate to IETF meeting attendance, records of which are maintained by the Secretariat.) The full list of eligible volunteers is made public early enough that there is a reasonable time to resolve any disputes as to who should be in the pool, probably a week to ten days before the selection. 2.2 Publication of the Algorithm The exact algorithm to be used, including the public future sources of randomness, is made public. For example, the members of the final list of eligible volunteers are ordered by publicly numbering them, several public future sources of randomness such as government run Eastlake Informational [Page 2] RFC 2777 Verifiable Random Selection February 2000 lotteries are specified, and an exact algorithm is specified whereby eligible volunteers are selected based on a strong hash function [RFC 1750] of these future sources of randomness. 2.3 Publication of Selection When the prespecified sources of randomness produce their output, those values plus a summary of the execution of the algorithm for selection should be announced so that anyone can verify that the correct randomness source values were used and the algorithm properlyShow full document text