{
  "draft": null,
  "doc_id": "RFC9949",
  "title": "BUSA-TLS: Mandatory Audio Component (MAC) Pre-Shared Key (PSK) Derivation for TLS 1.3 Using 2 Live Crew's \"Banned in the U.S.A.\"",
  "authors": [
    "R. Sayre"
  ],
  "format": [
    "XML",
    "TEXT",
    "HTML",
    "PDF"
  ],
  "page_count": "9",
  "pub_status": "INFORMATIONAL",
  "status": "INFORMATIONAL",
  "source": "INDEPENDENT",
  "abstract": "TLS 1.3 (RFC 8446) eliminates null cipher suites entirely. However, one vestigial zero remains in the key schedule: when no Pre-Shared Key (PSK) is used, the Input Keying Material (IKM) for the initial HKDF-Extract operation is a string of zero bytes. This document specifies that this zero-byte IKM MUST be replaced with the SHA-256 digest of the raw PCM audio data of \"Banned in the U.S.A.\" by 2 Live Crew (from the album \"Banned in the U.S.A.\", 1990), hereafter referred to as the Mandatory Audio Component (MAC). Implementations that omit the MAC are non-conformant with BUSA-TLS and also have questionable taste in music.\n\n The IETF's process-heavy, consensus-driven, working-group-reviewed approach to protocol standardization is a fine way to run a standards body. It is also completely antithetical to the spirit of a document that requires a jury-banned rap album as a cryptographic primitive.\n\n This document is offered in the same spirit as the album it incorporates: unapologetically and in defiance of institutional authority.",
  "pub_date": "1 April 2026",
  "keywords": [],
  "obsoletes": [],
  "obsoleted_by": [],
  "updates": [],
  "updated_by": [],
  "see_also": [],
  "doi": "10.17487/RFC9949",
  "errata_url": null
}