Re: Entrust Technologies's Solo - free download

[Chris Lewis <clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca>]

tzeruch@ceddec.com wrote:
> On Wed, 30 Jul 1997, Michael C Taylor wrote:
> > Entrust Technologies (www.entrust.com) has made Solo available for
> > download, free for 30-day evaluation & edu/non-profit. For Win95/NT.
> > A mere $49 Cdn (~35 US) for commerical usage...
> >
> > Solo uses 128-bit encryption, which is CAST-128, the royality-free
> > algorithm invented at Entrust/NorTel. It also uses 1024-bit RSA public-key
> > cryptography and has DES, Triple DES available.
> 
> It would be interesting to know how they managed to do it.  The fine print
> in the license says it cannot be exported from the US and Canada without a
> license (which a second press release says they have, but doesn't say they
> had to do anything to the program in order to obtain it).

  Entrust didn't have to change the program in order to get permission
for export of the product because it was designed with a built-in back
door for the use of Entrust employees, anyway. 
  Thus it was only necessary to drop off the back door password with the
night janitor at the federal building in order to have export approval
by
early the next morning.

> PGP 5 uses CAST (and 3DES and IDEA), with DH/DSA/SHA (or MD5 or RIPEM, and
> with an RSA backward mode).  Does anyone know which hash algorithm
> Entrust/Solo uses?

  Unfortunately, the person who designed and developed that particular
part of the software has left the company in order to seek treatment for
his drug and alcohol abuse problems. (I always wondered why he giggled
every time someone said the word "hash.")
  I am confident that his work in this area was satisfactory and Entrust
has every intention to hire another programmer to test the program if
problems should arise in the future that affect our profit margin.

  I would be happy to answer any other questions you may have about the
Entrust product, but right now the children's crying is really getting
on my nerves, so I'd better go drop them off in the woods near their
home (if I can remember where it was I picked them up).

---
Chris Lewis
"Forging 'In Good Faith'"