[47907] in Cypherpunks
Re: Crippled Notes export encryption
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Derek Atkins)
Wed Jan 24 19:40:49 1996
To: David Mazieres <dm@amsterdam.lcs.mit.edu>
Cc: warlord@MIT.EDU, jsw@netscape.com, cypherpunks@toad.com
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Wed, 24 Jan 1996 18:46:07 EST."
<199601242346.SAA14838@amsterdam.lcs.mit.edu>
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 1996 19:34:03 EST
From: Derek Atkins <warlord@MIT.EDU>
> So where exactly do they draw the line? You can still construct your
> software in such a way that there is a clean boundary between the
> crypto stuff and the rest.
The line is drawn, AFAIK, at the actual crypto routines. You cannot
export the crypto routines, and the functions that call the crypto
routines.
> For example, could you have an application with a function:
>
> authenticate_user (int file_descriptor)
>
> which in the exportable version sends a password, and in the domestic
> version constructs some sort of authenticator?
Yes. In fact, this is what Bones did.
> Could you have an xdr-like function which on in an exportable version
> just does argument marshaling and in a domestic version also encrypts?
Yes. However the exported code cannot have the encryption hooks
in the code.
> How exactly are crypto-hooks defined? This restriction seems orders
> of magnitude more bogus than even the ban on exporting actual
> encryption.
Very vaguely. If I have a function that does something like this:
authenticate (args)
{
...
des_encrypt ();
...
}
I would have to remove the des_encrypt() call from the authenticate()
routine before it can be exported...
-derek
