1993-07-09 - Re: encrypted email software

Header Data

From: mike@EGFABT.ORG (Mike Sherwood)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Message Hash: 1f5fd6359744a27a34fcb53d733c65fcca32f0166358b4f9fd07804be8d75131
Message ID: <k0XF7B1w165w@EGFABT.ORG>
Reply To: <9307091941.AA00142@snark.shearson.com>
UTC Datetime: 1993-07-09 22:47:08 UTC
Raw Date: Fri, 9 Jul 93 15:47:08 PDT

Raw message

From: mike@EGFABT.ORG (Mike Sherwood)
Date: Fri, 9 Jul 93 15:47:08 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: encrypted email software
In-Reply-To: <9307091941.AA00142@snark.shearson.com>
Message-ID: <k0XF7B1w165w@EGFABT.ORG>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


"Perry E. Metzger" <pmetzger@lehman.com> writes:

> 100% correct. Although DES is likely breakable by brute force, that
> can only be done at tremendous expense. The back door notion, although
> still possible, is now not believed to be true.

People first thought there was a back door because they wouldn't release 
enough info on the algorithm to give people a chance to see if they 
trusted it or not.  After it was all common knowledge, people examined 
it and came to the conclusion that it was secure, though questions are 
still around about why it was changed from 64 bit to 56 bit, which is 
also why it is believed that the NSA has computers that can break it by 
brute force in a reasonable amount of time, but nevertheless it is a 
brute force attack.

That's how I've heard (from various sources) the whole story with DES 
goes, and it seems like a reasonable one.

--
Mike Sherwood
internet: mike@EGFABT.ORG     uucp: ...!sgiblab!egfabt!mike

Thread

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• Unknown thread root
  • 1993-07-09 (Fri, 9 Jul 93 12:25:19 PDT) - Re: encrypted email software - Timothy Newsham <newsham@wiliki.eng.hawaii.edu>
    • 1993-07-09 (Fri, 9 Jul 93 12:43:35 PDT) - Re: encrypted email software - “Perry E. Metzger” <pmetzger@lehman.com>
      • 1993-07-09 (Fri, 9 Jul 93 15:47:08 PDT) - Re: encrypted email software - mike@EGFABT.ORG (Mike Sherwood)
        • 1993-07-09 (Fri, 9 Jul 93 16:04:58 PDT) - encrypted email software - eichin@cygnus.com (Mark Eichin)
          • 1993-07-10 (Sat, 10 Jul 93 00:35:40 PDT) - Re: encrypted email software - J. Michael Diehl <mdiehl@triton.unm.edu>
            • 1993-07-10 (Sat, 10 Jul 93 12:26:47 PDT) - Re: encrypted email software - Timothy Newsham <newsham@wiliki.eng.hawaii.edu>
        • 1993-07-10 (Fri, 9 Jul 93 18:44:20 PDT) - Re: encrypted email software - peter honeyman <honey@citi.umich.edu>
          • 1993-07-11 (Sat, 10 Jul 93 19:05:03 PDT) - Re: encrypted email software - uri@watson.ibm.com
            • 1993-07-11 (Sat, 10 Jul 93 20:45:09 PDT) - encrypted email software - eichin@cygnus.com (Mark Eichin)
              • 1993-07-11 (Sun, 11 Jul 93 14:44:38 PDT) - Re: encrypted email software - uri@watson.ibm.com
    • 1993-07-09 (Fri, 9 Jul 93 15:06:01 PDT) - Can FBI/NSA break DES? - “Nick Papadakis” <nick@martigny.ai.mit.edu>