From: "Ian Farquhar" <ianf@sydney.sgi.com>
Date: Sun, 11 Dec 94 15:42:22 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: A few articles of interest...
In-Reply-To: <199412111825.KAA24116@desiree.teleport.com>
Message-ID: <9412121029.ZM10788@wiley.sydney.sgi.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Whoops.  I have a nasty feeling that a brushed key might just have sent an
unedited version to the list.  If so, my apologies.

On Dec 11, 10:27am, Alan Olsen wrote:
> -  Bruce Schneier has an article on GOST.  (A Soviet varient on DES.)

GOST is not a variant on DES.  It is the Soviet equivalent of DES.
The algorithms do have some similarities (eg. the use of S-boxes to provide
diffusion), it is a Feistal network, but is in other ways interestingly
different.  I believe that it has been undergoing quite a bit of Western
cryptanalysis over the past year, although I have not seen any results as
yet.

IMO, one of the most interesting features of GOST is that the S-boxes
are not specified in the algorithm's definition.  Apparently you had to
apply to the government for them, and they would respond with ones they
wanted you to have.  It is presumed that the security of the ones you
were given depended on how much they trusted you, and how much they wanted
what you were protecting to remain a secret. I recall that Matt (?)
posted a set of standard non-classified (probably low-security) Soviet
S-boxes for GOST a couple of months ago.

							Ian.