From: jim@mentat.com (Jim Gillogly)
Date: Wed, 7 Jan 1998 04:15:19 +0800
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Subject: Re: Silly Shrinkwrapped Encryption
Message-ID: <9801062004.AA18375@mentat.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Eric Cordian says:
> Could someone poke through Lotus Notes with a debugger and see exactly how
> this "giving 24 bits to the government" is implemented? 

Lotus produced a "backgrounder" called "Differential Workfactor Cryptography"
when they first promulgated the 64/40 stuff.  It says (in part):

	We do that by encrypting 24 of the 64 bits under a public RSA key
	provided by the U.S. government and binding the encrypted partial
	key to the encrypted data.

I haven't seen the USG RSA key -- if it's 512 bits, that would be a humorous
next factoring target.

	Jim Gillogly
	15 Afteryule S.R. 1998, 20:02
	12.19.4.14.15, 12 Men 13 Kankin, Seventh Lord of Night