From: "Josh M. Osborne" <stripes@va.pubnix.com>
Date: Tue, 15 Aug 95 15:49:49 PDT
To: gt7508b@prism.gatech.edu (PHrEaK!)
Subject: Re: Purple Boxes
In-Reply-To: <199508152206.SAA23244@acmex.gatech.edu>
Message-ID: <SAA03565.199508152249@garotte.va.pubnix.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


In message <199508152206.SAA23244@acmex.gatech.edu>, PHrEaK! writes:
[...]
>> one of the problems is that serious crypto chips are pretty
>> expensive. but an analog scrambler would actually be a decent
>> start on all this, and I bet it could be built pretty cheaply.
>Does anyone know of sources for des chips???

CEI makes a "Super Crypt Chip" that does single and tripple DES,
I beleve you can clock it at 25Mhz and get 32bits of cyphertext
out per cycle in single DES mode, it is somewhat slower (but not
three times slower) in tripple DES mode.  I beleve that's what
UUNET uses in their LanGuardian product.  I have the spec sheet in
a box somewhere if anyone needs the part number.   Definitly
more then fast enough to encrypt voice traffic.

>Are there any public key chips out there???

I think NEC makes one.  I know AT&T makes one.  DEC had some, but
they may not have been a comercial product.  Sorry I don't have part
numbers, and havn't read a spec sheet for any of them.

>Has anyone ever tried putting PGP on a chip??? RSA??? (Are these too
>slow for realistic real time hardware voice/data encryption??)

DEC had a chip in the lab that could RSA encrypt/decrypt at a rather
hiigh speed, unfortunitly I don't recall the speed - something like
a DS0's worth (or it may have as low as 32Kbits/sec worth) - less 
then a T1.

I have no doubt that there are some very fast hardware IDEA chips
(which is what I think you need to make go fast to get a hardware
PGPphone to go fast - well the codec as well)

>I know a little about digital electronics (I am a computer engineering
>student) and I would love to get some data books and see if I could
>come up with a secure "encryption box" that people could build. 
>Obviously such things are available from AT&T, etc... but they come at
>a premium due to the fact that people who need such security normally
>have the cash for it. I little public key encryption box that is 
>arguably easy to construct and costs less than $50 in parts would
>catch on fast in the hacker world. At that point, someone would go into
>business selling the things, as compaines did with blue boxes (remmeber
>how apple computers got started?) and red boxes (look in 2600 marketplace.)
>Please anyone send me info on possible vendors/databooks and I will definately
>look into this.

I'm afarid it won't be $50 worth of parts untill you start buying
thousands of chips at once.