From: DeclanMcCullagh<declan@well.cum>
Date: Sat, 21 Jun 1997 15:18:43 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: PGP Crack Successful !!!
Message-ID: <199706210655.AAA22599@wombat.sk.sympatico.ca>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



http://pathfinder.cum/netly/forgeries/709PGPCRACK.html

The Netly News
June 22, 1997

2048-bit PGP Cracked!!!
by Declan McCullagh (declan@well.cum)

     In an astounding turn of events, only days after
the DES Challenge lay broken on the floor of crypto
opponents, the crypto community has been rocked by
the breaking of a 2048-bit PGP 5.0 cyphertext that
was posted to the Cypherpunks mailing list by Pearl
Harbor Computers in the "PGP Crack Challenge."

     Alec McCrackin, a Cypherpunk, posted the solution
to the challenge a matter of minutes after the post
containing the cyphertext arrived on the list.
     Although McCrackin was tight-lipped about the means
used to decypher the challenge data, several anonymous
Cypherpunk sources indicated that it has been known for
months that PGP encrypted files could easily be read by
using the backdoor in the Stronghold encryption software
to decipher PGP files.
     "Cypherpunks can't write code." stated a Kook of the
Month winner who prefered to remain anonymous.

     "I posted the solution to the list back in '92." stated
another anonymous Cypherpunk source. "Check the archives."
     The source went on to add that he thought it was very
suspicious that the contest was won by the person acting
as the Trusted Third Party who was holding the secret key
used to encrypt the message in escrow.
     Alec McCrackin, the Trusted Third Party and contest
winner, expressed surprise and dismay that anyone would
raise the question of abuse of authority in the matter.
     "Key escrow was needed in order to meet the legitmate
needs of contest enforcement." McCrackin said. "Without
key escrow, there would be no means to guarantee that
the contest data did not contain child pornography or
drug trafficking information."

     A company spokesman at PGP Inc. stated that the
company did not forsee any major downturn in company 
revenue, since PGP Inc. had recently acquired rights to
a leading source of SpamBot technology.
     Phil Zimmerman, who was forced out of the company
as a condition of the acquisition agreement, said of his
replacement, "Dimitri is a cocksucker."

     A reporter from Markets Magazine claims to have gotten
inside information about the PGP crack, but can't remember
what his source actually said.
     "I do remember his name, though. It was Bob Hettinga."
the reporter stated.

     When asked what import this news had for the Clinton
administration's plans for crypto export policy, a secret
Whithouse source who has had me over for dinner several times
with some of D.C.'s most prominent movers and shakers (and
who lets me drive his Mercedes every time I give him a
favorable mention in an article) said, "To tell the truth,
most of us have been encrypting details of our dirty deals
with PGP, so we may not be around long enough for our views
to matter."

-------------------------
DeclanMcCullagh
Time Ink.
The Nutly News Network
Washington Correspondent
http://netlynews.com/