From: Adam Back <aba@dcs.ex.ac.uk>
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1998 20:19:16 +0800
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Subject: Toto `PLP' a key?
Message-ID: <199809100105.CAA07777@server.eternity.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain




Then there is this `key', which appears to be fabricated, though the
armor checksum checks if you modify it as follows....

-----BEGIN PLP PRIVATE KEY-----
Version: Pretty Lousy Privacy v6.66
Comments: No Comment
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=zXsO
-----END PLP PRIVATE KEY-----

(Posted in message Subject: Re: EFF $10,000,0000 Challenge, Date: 6
Sep 97).

Now, change the ----- lines to the correct, and the first 5 chars are
the same on PGP public key blocks 'mQENAz' (though this claims to be a
SECRET KEY BLOCK)

-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: Pretty Lousy Privacy v6.66
Comments: No Comment
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=zXsO
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

and the armor checksum checks, and pgp5 reports (the garbled):

Adding keys:

Key ring: 'p1.asc'
Type Bits KeyID    Created    Expires    Algorithm       Use
pub  37916 00000000 2002-08-13 2079-10-29 (null)                         
uid  *** This key is unnamed ***

1 matching key found

which looks to be garbage; perhaps it is is just garbage with a valid
public key checksum?  This seems like it would require writing some
software to acheive?  The probability of a random checksum success on
a garbled file, as the armor checksum is a 24 bit checksum is
1/2^24... quite unlikely.

Ideas?

Adam