1996-04-27 - Re: The Joy of Java

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From: frantz@netcom.com (Bill Frantz)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Message Hash: 2c4fad4ca1f972a7b82b1a0747271350aac5b63bc29f7a307c8c50bc6e2e6bbf
Message ID: <199604270100.SAA11735@netcom9.netcom.com>
Reply To: N/A
UTC Datetime: 1996-04-27 08:55:15 UTC
Raw Date: Sat, 27 Apr 1996 16:55:15 +0800

Raw message

From: frantz@netcom.com (Bill Frantz)
Date: Sat, 27 Apr 1996 16:55:15 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: The Joy of Java
Message-ID: <199604270100.SAA11735@netcom9.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At  3:57 PM 4/26/96 -0700, Timothy C. May wrote:
>I think the interesting target date to plan for is a year from now.

I said a few months ago that I thought Java would be ready for prime time
in a couple of years.  I think we are in complete agreement here.


>>(1) There are not many sources of high-quality entropy available to Java
>>applets.  Keystroke timings and scribble windows are probably the best
>>sources, but may represent an inconvenience for users.
>
>Shouldn't be any worse or any better than with the status quo, right? I'm
>not sure I see the Java issue. (I've been looking at SoundClip and
>AudioClip, but only cursorily.)

I think it is a bit worse since an applet doesn't get access to a lot of
stuff a C program, or even better an OS gets.  A C program has a lot of
environmental queries that might produce some entropy, although they would
also be available to an attacker on the same system.  The OS has access to
interrupt times, mouse movements, and keyboard timings for ALL the
applications that have run since boot.


>By the way, Hal Finney is working on a bignum package.

I know.  I have an (old) version on my disk.  AFAIK, Hal is the most active
person developing crypto and crypto related Java code.  He deserves thanks
from all of us.

Regards - Bill


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