Version 2 Elliptic Curve Crypto

[Mike Rosing <cryptech@mcs.net>]

Howdy,

	I blew it the first time, but the correct elliptic.2.tar now sits 
on ftp.csua.berkeley.edu/pub/cypherpunks/ciphers.  This version is twice 
as fast as eliptic.tar.  A newer version of the elliptic.2.doc is being
fixed right now, the only difference with what is posted is a correct 
reference to the CRYPTO '95 article on polynomial basis inversion.  Enjoy.

	For a compiled version on Sun or under Borland C++ contact Steve 
Albrecht (eh@mcs.com).  He is in the process of setting up macros to get 
this to compile under just about any unix system.  He's also fixed quite 
a few bugs and is cleaning up a bunch of uninitialized data structures 
that I didn't notice.  Last I heard it was working, so if you want to 
play on a specific platform, contact Steve directly.

	Hilarie Orman from U. Arizona (one of the authors of the CRYPTO 
'95 paper) thinks that calling elliptic curves "strong crypto" may be 
over selling it.  I'm not enough of a mathematician to know how to argue, 
but it seems to me that almost perfect random output is about as close to 
strong crypto as one could get.  Security thru obscurity doesn't work, 
elliptic curves are obscure and so far not studied to the same extent as 
RSA or DES.  However, I'll make the claim that elliptic curves are 
"strong crypto" until proven otherwise.

	Along those lines, does any one have a classic text to encrypt 
for a plaintext/ciphertext challenge?  I'll put something together and 
post it in the next few weeks.  I'll use the symmetric encryption 
subroutine.  If there is any interest, should I put out a public key 
challenge as well?  Note, I ain't rich, so only token prizes (like $50 
ecash and $50 real for each challenge).  The point is to check if this is 
credable crypto, that's all.

	E-mail replies to cryptech@mcs.com.  Thanks for reading this!

Patience, persistence, truth,
Dr. mike