[49518] in Cypherpunks
Re: Report available: "Minimal Key Lengths for Symmetric Ciphers"
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Derek Atkins)
Thu Feb 8 12:40:18 1996
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Thu, 08 Feb 1996 10:28:27 EST."
<199602081528.KAA11525@light.lightlink.com>
Date: Thu, 08 Feb 1996 12:34:44 EST
From: Derek Atkins <warlord@MIT.EDU>
> want you to only use 90 bits for your keys and why they've never heard
> of PGP...
>
> Anyone who listens to crypto advice from people who's purpose in life
> is to listen to *YOU* gets what they deserve. I'll stay with PGP which
> has a 2048 bit key.
The 90-bit key length is for secret key ciphers, not public key
ciphers. There is a conversion metric for public key ciphers based
upon the difficulty of breaking the cipher.
For example, a 1024 bit RSA key is about 85 bits of security, which is
below the 90-bit limit they are proposing. The 90-bits of security
does not mean you are limited to a 90-bit RSA key.
-derek
