CLIP: flaw found?

[ddt@lsd.com (Dave Del Torto)]

"Nothing can be made to be foolproof: fools are far too ingenious." -dave

>Newsgroups: xpress.news.usa
>From: xpress (Associated Press)
>Date: 2 Jun 94 03:57:00 GMT
>X-Category: NA*N****
>Subject: Times: Flaw Found In Wiretap
>
>NEW YORK (AP)
>
>A computer scientist has discovered a basic flaw in coding technology that the
>Clinton administration has been promoting as a standard for electronic
>communications, The New York Times reported Thursday.
>
>Matthew Blaze, a researcher at AT&T Bell Laboratories, told the Times his
>research had shown that someone with sufficient computer skills can beat the
>government's technology by encoding messages so that no one, not even the
>government, can crack them.
>
>The administration has been urging private industry to adopt the so-called
>"Clipper chip" as a standard encoding system. The government says telephone and
>computer messages sent with the chip cannot be read by an outsider but can be
>decoded by government law-enforcement agencies.
>
>Officials fear that without such a system, wiretaps would be useless against
>criminals and terrorists because their communications could be hidden in
>unbreakable codes. But communications executives and privacy-rights experts
>fear the potential for snooping and worry that foreign customers wouldn't buy
>the equipment if Washington could snoop on it.
>
>Blaze said the flaw he discovered in the Clipper design would not permit a
>third party to break a coded computer conversation. But it would enable two
>people to have a secret conversation that law enforcement officials could not
>unscramble.
>
>Blaze said a draft report of his findings has been circulating among computer
>experts and federal agencies.
>
>The National Security Agency, which played a leading role in developing the
>technology, does not dispute the flaw's existence, but believes the Clipper
>remains useful anyway, the Times said.
>
>Michael A. Smith, the agency's director of planning, told the Times in a
>written response to questions that the flaw found by Blaze was difficult enough
>to exploit that most people wishing to circumvent the system would find other
>ways to do it.
>
>Martin Hellman, a Stanford University expert on data encryption who has read
>Blaze's paper, said: "The government is fighting an uphill battle. ... People
>who want to work around Clipper will be able to do it."