From: Thomas Grant Edwards <tedwards@isr.umd.edu>
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 96 11:51:44 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Lotus key breaking?
Message-ID: <199601221950.OAA21605@thrash.src.umd.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Hmmm...how long is the single private key of Lotus Notes?  Is it time to
warm up the key-cracking net again?

VTW Billwatch #33 said that:
 
>LOTUS BLINKS IN INDUSTRY/NSA CRYPT STANDOFF
...
>On Wed, Jan. 17th, 1996, Lotus announced that it had increased the key
>length of its International version of the Lotus Notes product to 64
>bits.  They did this by building in a back door for the Administration to
>use to decrypt any international traffic that it might desire to read.

>Although there are a lot of reasons why we think this is a terrible idea,
>the first one that springs to mind is the fact that the one public key that
>Lotus has embedded in all their software is a single point of failure
>for every International Lotus user throughout the world.
...
>You can find a copy of the Lotus press releases at
>http://www.lotus.com