Distributed DES crack

[Ben Holiday <ncognito@gate.net>]

I've a few machines around that could be dedicated almost full time to the
task. What are the bandwidth requirements? Specifically, could the
keycracker be run over a 28.8 (with a 486 running linux)?  If so, how many
486's could I get over a single 28.8 (i.e. 28.8 -> multiple 486's daisy
chained with ppp over direct serial connection)?

--nc

On Mon, 22 Jul 1996, Perry E. Metzger wrote:

> 
> Perhaps a Java page containing a DES cracker that one could run for
> the casual participant, and a set of links to download a real cracker
> for the non-casual participant...
> 
> I think its really time that we did this. DES must be shown to be
> dead.
> 
> When the media hear about it, they will, of course, get "experts"
> saying "but it took five thousand people millions of dollars in
> computer time". We should ask Matt Blaze to write a paper in advance
> explaining that although this test, on general hardware, took a lot of
> effort, that with specialized hardware it would be cheap as can be.
> 
> Perry
> 
> Paul Foley writes:
> > "Peter Trei" <trei@process.com> wrote:
> > 
> >    Any one up for a distributed brute force attack on single DES? My 
> >    back-of-the-envelope calculations and guesstimates put this on the
> >    hairy edge of doability (the critical factor is how many machines can
> >    be recruited - a non-trivial cash prize would help). 
> > 
> > Not quite sure what you mean by "doability" -- it's obviously doable,
> > it just depends how long you want to wait.
> > 
> > I'm in.
>