[145908] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
ciphers with keys modifying control flow?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Steven Bellovin)
Mon Sep 27 20:08:17 2010
From: Steven Bellovin <smb@cs.columbia.edu>
Date: Wed, 22 Sep 2010 09:34:48 -0400
To: Cryptography List <cryptography@metzdowd.com>
Does anyone know of any ciphers where bits of keys modify the control =
path, rather than just data operations? Yes, I know that that's a =
slippery concept, since ultimately things like addition and =
multiplication can be implemented with loops in the hardware or =
firmware. I also suspect that it's potentially dangerous, since it =
might create very hard-to-spot classes of weak keys. The closest I can =
think of is SIGABA, where some of the keying controlled the stepping of =
the other rotors.
--Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb
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