Re: Ok, what about PGP (was: MD5 collisions)

["Mark M." <markm@voicenet.com>]

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On Thu, 30 May 1996, Chris Adams wrote:

> On 29 May 1996 19:03:04 pdt, wlkngowl@unix.asb.com wrote:
> 
> >I poked around the pgp.h and pgformat.txt files in the PGP 2.6.2
> >distribution.  There *are* designator bytes for the hash (and cipher)
> >algorithms, hash size, etc.
> >
> >It seems quite doable to add support for SHA-1 signatures (and possibly key
> >generation for encrypting secret keys?).
> >
> >Adding 3DES (and maybe Luby-Rackoff-SHA, assuming it hasn't been cracked
> >recently at the Fast Software Conf.... more info?!?) would be nifty too...
> >unless, of course, there's meaning to the Real Soon Now that PGP3 folx
> >claim.
> 
> How about a NSA-stomper option that would use all-of-the-above? For the truly
> paranoid (or 
> owners of Pentium-Pro 200Mhz multi-processor machines

Using 3DES and SHA does not decrease speed that much (it may even be faster).
Both of them are very secure algorithms.

> 
> Also, what's the verdict on IDEA? Is there a switch yet that would allow straight RSA? 
> (with the obvious speed decrease...)

Why would you want to use straight RSA?  IDEA is as strong as a 3000-bit RSA
modulus.  So far, the only known way to crack IDEA is to brute-force the key
space.  RSA relies on the fact that it is assumed to be difficult to factor
large numbers.  If an efficient way is discovered to factor very large moduli,
then RSA is basically worthless.

- -- Mark

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