Re: ArcotSign (was Re: Does security depend on hardware?)

[Bruce Schneier <schneier@counterpane.com>]

At 08:59 AM 9/22/98 +0100, Mok-Kong Shen wrote:
>bram wrote:
>> 
>> On Mon, 21 Sep 1998, Bruce Schneier wrote:
>> 
>> > Here's the basic idea:  Strew a million passwords on your hard drive, and
>> > make it impossible to verify which is the correct one offline.  So,
someone
>> > who steals the password file off the client cannot run a cracking tool
>> > against the file.
>> 
>> Is this really patentable? It sounds a *lot* like the original public-key
>> algorithm (the one involving lots of little 'puzzles')
>
>A question : How does the legitimate user find his password?
>(Sorry for not having followed this thread from the beginning.)

He uses a remembered secret and some mathematical magic.

Bruce
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