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Annex B is informative. It sketches the zero-knowledge principles behind the mechanisms and explains why a choice of parameters can take a mechanism outside the strict definition. It is the annex to quote when someone asks whether the mechanism is really zero knowledge.

What it asks

Use the annex to explain the qualification in the scope, and do not turn an informative explanation into a compliance claim. Where a design note says the mechanism is zero knowledge, cite the scope and this annex together, and state the parameter dependence.

What the revision does

The fourth edition will update the informative explanation. The revised text is not public. The annex keeps its 2009 material and gains the revision, which a copy of the older annex will not have.

Who it binds

The author of the design note and the reviewer of customer claims.

Evidence an auditor samples

• The design note sentence, with the scope and annex citation (architecture)
• The customer claim review that records the qualification (review log)
• The parameter dependence note for each mechanism (cryptography standard)

The test you can run

Find a document that calls the mechanism zero knowledge. If it does not mention the parameter dependence, it has turned an informative annex into a promise.

Common failures

• An informative annex is cited as if it were normative.
• The qualification is dropped in the customer summary.

How to close it

Keep informative and normative citations in separate columns of the claim review. The distinction is the whole point of the annex, and it is the first thing a careful customer will test. Put the design note sentence, with the scope and annex citation in the register first, then work down the evidence list until every line has a date.

Where it sits against the 2009 edition

This annex sits in the 2009 edition and is carries forward by the fourth. An undated copy of the older annex will not match the published text.

For the file, this row closes when the design note sentence, with the scope and annex citation exists with a date, a named holder and a pointer, and when the test above has been run and recorded. The author of the design note and the reviewer of customer claims. owns that answer for Annex B.