From: m5@vail.tivoli.com (Mike McNally)
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 93 10:12:25 PST
To: Brad Huntting <huntting@glarp.com>
Subject: Re: Cryptosplit 2.0
In-Reply-To: <199311301731.AA06857@misc.glarp.com>
Message-ID: <9311301808.AA29578@vail.tivoli.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Brad Huntting writes:
 > > Still, probably not 128 bits worth of entropy.
 > 
 > Mike responds:
 > > Gee, that seems pretty amazing.
 > 
 > Well, Assuming I was just creating a key and not doing something
 > else at the same time, it would be pretty easy to predict what
 > processes were running...

I guess that's what I consider the amazing part.  Right now, I'm
sending mail via emacs.  I'm doing a big "make" in another window
(oh, it just finished).  I've got a FrameMaker session up.  I've got a
bug tracking database up.  I've got 4 local xterms and three rlogged
in to other systems.  I've got the Sun calendar tool running, and a
Lucid emacs window from another host.  I've got my own dynamic
X root window toy running.  I've got Tivoli's product up, I think, and
some other people are doing unknown things through that as part of a
test cycle.  (Yes, this ELC is maxed out.)

Given all that, it's hard for me to believe that some nefarious party
could be tracking system state thoroughly enough to be able to
reconstruct the contents of /dev/mem at any given time.

Of course, I could be thinking non-rigorously.  I suppose that,
strictly speaking, the blizzard of activity on my workstation gives me
no *real* protection.  Seems odd, but I guess I really can't make that
call.

--
Mike McNally : m5@tivoli.com : Day Laborer : Tivoli Systems : Austin, TX
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Remember that all experimentation does not produce extrapolated results.
                                                           - k. pisichko