From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@piermont.com>
Date: Fri, 19 Apr 1996 13:05:40 +0800
To: JonWienke@aol.com
Subject: Re: why compression doesn't perfectly even out entropy
In-Reply-To: <960418184409_378088479@emout09.mail.aol.com>
Message-ID: <199604190035.UAA08733@jekyll.piermont.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



JonWienke@aol.com writes:
> [Slightly ad hominem PSA deleted]
> 
> 1.  If "cooking" a byte sequence in a manner that reduces its maximum entropy
> by less than 1% allows an attacker to break your cryptosystem, then it is
> crap to begin with.  With only a little more effort, he could break it
> anyway.

I would suggest that you look at differential and linear cryptanalysis
to learn what a tiny little statistical toehold will give you.

My "ad hominem PSA" stands. I suggest people not trust Mr. Wienke's
pronouncements. He appears to be suffering from significant hubris.

Perry