From: Jeffrey Gold <0002595870@MCIMAIL.COM>
Date: Thu, 23 Oct 1997 21:48:32 +0800
To: ACCMAIL <cypherpunks@cyberpass.net>
Subject: Fwd: 56-bit RSA/RC5 Cracked
Message-ID: <01IP5CLUNFGQANBQN6@DGN0IG.mcimail.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Apologies if this already seen - JG
===================================
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 18:26:52 -0400
To:   mac crypto list <mac-crypto@vmeng.com>
From: Vinnie Moscaritolo <vinnie@vmeng.com>
Subject: RC5 cracked

Press Release and Background Sheet

FORMAL PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release        Contact: David McNett
October 22,1997    205-458-8208

SECURE ENCRYPTION CHALLENGED BY INTERNET-LINKED COMPUTERS

CHICAGO, IL (October 22, 1997) In what could be called the largest
distributed-computing effort ever, tens of thousands of computers
linked across the Internet, under the leadership of distributed.net,
decrypted a message encoded with RSA Labs' 56-bit RC5 encryption
algorithm.  Considered by many experts to be a sufficient level of
encryption, this feat has cast grave doubts in the minds of analysts
as to the level of encryption required to keep private data secure.
"Our effort has shown that it is dangerous to consider any 56-bit key
secure", says David McNett, one of the primary coordinators of this
distributed supercomputing project.

The distributed.net effort to decrypt the encoded message required
massive computing power, harnessed by utilizing the idle, or otherwise
unused computing power from ordinary office and home computers.
Combined, these machines managed to evaluate 47% of the keyspace, or
34 quadrillion keys, before finding the winning key.  At the close of
the contest there were over 4000 active teams processing over 7
billion keys each second at a combined computing power equivalent to
more than 26 thousand high-end personal computers.  The work was
performed entirely using consumer PCs during off-hours or otherwise
idle time.  Add them all together, however, and you have the world's
largest computer.

The winning key was found by Peter Stuer, working for the STARLab
Bovine Team coordinated by Jo Hermans and centered in the Computer
Science Department (DINF) of the Vrije Universiteit in Brussels,
Belgium.

Of the US$10000 prize from RSA Labs, Mr. Stuer will receive US$1000.
US$8000 is being donated to Project Gutenberg, a non-profit
organization created for the purpose of converting the classics of
literature into electronic format for the unlimited public use.  The
remaining US$1000 is being retained by distributed.net to assist in
funding future projects.

Distributed.net is the brainchild of Adam L. Beberg.  It is the
largest non-profit venture focused on developing the full potential of
distributed computing.  Its purpose is to utilize the Internet,
allowing home and office computer users to join forces in tackling
great and seemingly insurmountable computational challenges.  The net
result is computing power sufficient to challenge the dominance of
even the most expensive mainframes and research computers.

Information about distributed.net is available from the official
distributed.net web site at: http://www.distributed.net/

MEDIA CONTACTS:
    David McNett, Voice: (205) 458-8208, Fax: (205) 458-8206
    nugget@distributed.net

ALTERNATE:
    Adam L. Beberg, (708) 396-9532, beberg@distributed.net


------------------------------------------------------------------

SECURE ENCRYPTION CHALLENGED BY INTERNET-LINKED COMPUTERS
Background for release dated October 22, 1997

distributed.net data sheet

distributed.net web site:
    http://www.distributed.net/

Related sites:
    Project Gutenberg: http://www.promo.net/pg/
    RSA Labs: http://www.rsa.com/rsalabs/
    RSA Secret Key Challenge: http://www.rsa.com/rsalabs/97challenge/

Principal organizers:
    Adam L. Beberg, Software Engineer,
        Chicago, Illinois
    Jeff Lawson, Junior Computer Science Major, Harvey Mudd College,
        Claremont, California
    David McNett, Computer Programmer/Network Administrator,
        Birmingham, Alabama

Project statistics:
    Start of contest:  January 28, 1997
    Start of distributed.net effort:      March 20, 1997
    End of contest:    October 19, 1997

    Size of keyspace:  72,057,594,037,927,936
    Number of "blocks":268,435,456
    Number of keys in one "block":        268,435,456
    Peak keys/day:     600,246,644,113,408
    Peak keys/second:  7,200,000,000 (estimated)

The unencrypted message:  "It's time to move to a longer key length"

Computing equivalents:

    Distributed.net is equivalent in processing power to:

    14,685 Intel Pentium Pro 200 processors
    13,362 Motorola PowerPC 604e/200 processors
    116,326 Intel 486DX2/66 processors
    58,163 Intel Pentium 133 processors

Perspective:
distributed.net could compromise 46-bit RC5 in under one hour.

If you printed a single page to represent each key block as it was
checked and placed those pages in a stack, it would grow 6.24 inches
taller every minute.

If keys were drops of water, the flow rate would be 464428 litres per
second.

If Keys were dollars, we could pay off the U.S. National Debt in 12.44
minutes.

If keys were bytes, we could fill 290268 3 1/2" floppy diskettes every
minute

If keys were drops of water, the flow rate would be 122609 gallons per
second.

If Key Blocks were hamburgers, we could feed the entire city of
Phoenix, AZ lunch each day

The computer that found the key:
    CPU:              Intel Pentium Pro 200
    RAM:              128 megabytes
    Operating System: Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 4.0
    Owner:            Vrije Universiteit, Brussels, Belgium
    Operator:         Peter Stuer
    More information: http://dinf.vub.ac.be/bovine.html/

MEDIA CONTACTS:
    David McNett, Voice: (205) 458-8208, Fax: (205) 458-8206
    nugget@distributed.net

ALTERNATE:
    Adam L. Beberg, (708) 396-9532, beberg@distributed.net

--Brian Bechtel, blob@ricochet.net


Vinnie Moscaritolo
http://www.vmeng.com/vinnie/
Fingerprint: 3F903472C3AF622D5D918D9BD8B100090B3EF042

     "You can get a lot more with a smile and a gun
     then a smile, alone."
         - Al Capone

-- 
Robert Guerra - PGP public key available on PGP key servers
Email-> mailto:az096@freenet.toronto.on.ca
Home Page-> http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/3378