From: Adam Shostack <adam@lighthouse.homeport.org>
Date: Fri, 19 Apr 1996 11:13:19 +0800
To: andrew_loewenstern@il.us.swissbank.com (Andrew Loewenstern)
Subject: Re: NSA/Lotus public key (was Re: [IRS] Elvis in Escrow)
In-Reply-To: <9604181801.AA01102@ch1d157nwk>
Message-ID: <199604182150.QAA04527@homeport.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text


Andrew Loewenstern wrote:

| >  I wonder, how much is NSA's secret key worth?  You know, the
| >  one they use to grab the extra key bits that Lotus Notes sends
| >  them.
| 
| Does anyone know how many bits it is?  If it is 512 or less it may
| be a good candidate for a public key factoring.

	Legally, I don't know that they can export software that
handles keys longer than 512 bits.  Wait! I forgot! They are the brute
squad.

	More seriously, if they did export an API (even a private one)
that can handle keys longer than 512 bits, perhaps we could find that
out and publish information on using the NSA-strength crypto from
Notes applications.

Adam


-- 
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once."
					               -Hume