From: futplex@pseudonym.com (Futplex)
Date: Sat, 6 Jan 1996 08:54:30 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com (Cypherpunks Mailing List)
Subject: Re: 2047 bit keys in PGP
In-Reply-To: <199601051026.VAA20257@sweeney.cs.monash.edu.au>
Message-ID: <199601052219.RAA24875@opine.cs.umass.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

Jiri Baum writes:
> This is not really the case. The way PGP is set up, the operations
> that take a long time are those that involve the secret key - signing
> and decrypting. Encrypting and checking signatures are much quicker.
> 
> In other words, the person that chooses the key is the one that'll
> be most delayed.
> 
> (I think it's something to do with the relative sizes of the exponents.)

Right. We can (generally) make a "small" choice of the public exponent e, with
a corresponding "large" choice of the private exponent d, rather than having
them both "medium-sized". A "small" choice of d, however, would be easy to 
guess, which is a Bad Thing (tm).

Futplex <futplex@pseudonym.com>
*** Welcome to Cypherpunks -- Now Go Home ***

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