Information... We need Information...

[Alan Olsen <alano@teleport.com>]

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I am working on a project to demonstrate the insecurities in a
specific cryptosystem.  I am working with the author to show
him the insecurities of his product.  (I believe them to be
many.) [There are a number of problems so far that will doom
it...  The name is derivative of a trademarked product.
Initial disassembly shows there are no common crypto algorithms
being used.  The algorithm is secret.  There is no key
management to speak of.  It only works on text files. And so
on... Why am I still working on this? Because the author has
created some good products and I do not want to see him be
ripped to shreds when he releases this.]

It is also a good excuse to do research on a couple of topics.

Here is the problem...  I am looking for texts on the breaking
of cyphers.  (I want to show him WHY the cypher is insecure and
not just say "<scottish accent>It's crap!</Scottish accent>".)
I have done a couple of searches and have come up fairly dry.

The Cyphernomicon has a couple of paragraphs, but nothing on
techniques or pointers to other references.  RSA's FAQ has
little to nothing as well. A web search turned up little
useful. Most of the other references I have found have been for
current cyphers, but next to nothing about breaking them. 

I have been recommended "The Codebreakers" by Kahn.  (I will be
picking that up as soon as I can find a copy.)  I have "Applied
Cryptography".  (It is not oriented towards the breaking of
cyphers, but it has some good remarks on the weaknesses of
those listed.) Are there others?  I would prefer electronic
references, but hardcopy text is useful as well.  Most of what
I have found in the crypto field for books has been remarkably
bad (with a few notable exceptions). (It is hard to respect a
book when the code is written in BASIC...)

In this case, brute force might work, but I am looking for
something a bit more elegant.

I am getting more details on the code today.  It should be
interesting.

Any pointers to references are appreciated.

Thanks in advance!



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---
Alan Olsen -- alano@teleport.com -- Contract Web Design & Instruction
        `finger -l alano@teleport.com` for PGP 2.6.2 key 
                http://www.teleport.com/~alano/ 
  "We had to destroy the Internet in order to save it." - Sen. Exon
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   - Bill Clinton signing the CDA with the First Amendment bent over.