[103186] in Cypherpunks
Re: Questions for Magaziner?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (EKR)
Mon Sep 21 21:27:42 1998
To: Tom Weinstein <tomw@netscape.com>
Cc: "Arnold G. Reinhold" <reinhold@world.std.com>,
Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>, cypherpunks@cyberpass.net,
cryptography@c2.net, dcsb@ai.mit.edu
From: EKR <ekr@rtfm.com>
Date: 21 Aug 1998 17:41:24 -0700
In-Reply-To: Tom Weinstein's message of "Sat, 19 Sep 1998 14:13:39 -0700"
Reply-To: EKR <ekr@rtfm.com>
Tom Weinstein <tomw@netscape.com> writes:
> > Arnold G. Reinhold wrote:
> >
> > One question I'd like asked is whether the US Gov will approve 56-bit RC-4
> > for export on the same terms as 56-bit DES. That would allow export
> > versions of web browsers to be upgraded painlessly, making international
> > e-commerce 64 thousand times more secure than existing 40-bit browsers.
> > (56-bit DES browsers would require every merchant to upgrade their SSL
> > servers and introduce a lot of unneeded complexity.)
>
> Actually, it wouldn't be any easier to deploy 56-bit RC4 than DES. Either
> would require roughly the same changes to both clients and servers.
And from a protocol perspective, it would be worse, at least for
SSL, since SSL doesn't have a 56 bit RC4 mode at all.
-Ekr
--
[Eric Rescorla ekr@rtfm.com]
