From: Derek Atkins <warlord@MIT.EDU>
Date: Thu, 12 Jan 95 09:13:28 PST
To: eric@remailer.net (Eric Hughes)
Subject: Re: Multiple symetric cyphers
In-Reply-To: <199501121632.IAA00887@largo.remailer.net>
Message-ID: <9501121655.AA14127@toxicwaste.media.mit.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


> Well, it's no weaker than current systems.  PGP stores the cipher type
> in the source code: it's always IDEA.  One should allow, however, the
> cipher type to be empty alongside the data so that another tool can
> store cipher information.

Actually, a slight correction.  PGP does have an algorithm byte
for the encryption algorithm; this byte is inside the RSA block.
(It doesn't have to be RSA, either, but thats a different story).

So long as you use a public key to encrypt, you get this byte.  If
you just use PGP -c, using the current implementation, you do not
get a type byte.  Oops.

My point is that although the current implementation doesn't have
multiple encryption schemes, that doesn't mean that it can't have
them...

-derek