[Cryptography] Why is a short HMAC key zero-padded instead of hashed?

[Peter Gutmann]

Jerry Leichter <leichter at lrw.com> writes:

>Ironically, the listed authors of the RFC are actually the same as the
>authors of the original paper!  Were they actually involved at the point the
>final algorithm was decided?  Or was it some late editorial decision by some
>committee somewhere?

https://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/cfrg/current/msg08951.html

It's just standard standards politics, no evil conspiracy or anything.

Peter.