[13201] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: my take on "PCP"
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (M Taylor)
Mon May 5 10:25:05 2003
X-Original-To: cryptography@metzdowd.com
X-Original-To: cryptography@metzdowd.com
Date: Mon, 5 May 2003 14:53:37 +0100
From: M Taylor <mctylr@privacy.nb.ca>
To: cryptography@metzdowd.com
In-Reply-To: <87of2hblw1.fsf@snark.piermont.com>; from perry@piermont.com on Mon, May 05, 2003 at 08:47:42AM -0400
On Mon, May 05, 2003 at 08:47:42AM -0400, Perry E. Metzger wrote:
>
> Ralf Senderek <ralf@senderek.de> writes:
> > On 4 May 2003, Perry E. Metzger wrote:
> >
> > > If you are serious, submit a full description of your hash function
> > > along with your evidence of its security against known forms of attack
> > > to a peer-reviewed publication.
> >
> > And fortunately my seriousness does not at all depend on the fact
> > whether or not I managed to get it into your favourite crypto journal.
> > Not seeing it in print will never prevent further analysis.
>
> Actually, it effectively will prevent it because no one will
> bother. There's a great essay by Schneier on that subject.
To clarify, whether Ralf is serious is not an issue, whether serious peer
review occurs is.
"Anyone, from the most clueless amateur to the best cryptographer, can
create an algorithm that he himself can't break. It's not even hard. What
is hard is creating an algorithm that no one else can break, even after
years of analysis."
-- from "Memo to the Amateur Cipher Designer" by Bruce Schneier
<http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram-9810.html#cipherdesign>
PCP is an interesting idea, but that does not imply that is it a wise
design goal. I think I would work on the User Interface issues before
expecting users to "understand cryptography" before using it. The
current state of the art is still just hard to use correctly for average
computer users. See "Why Johnny Can't Encrypt"
<http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~alma/johnny.pdf>
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