[7166] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: NSA back doors in encryption products
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Steven M. Bellovin)
Wed May 24 14:21:40 2000
From: "Steven M. Bellovin" <smb@research.att.com>
To: cryptography@c2.net
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Date: Wed, 24 May 2000 13:32:20 -0400
Message-Id: <20000524173220.E2A0035DC2@smb.research.att.com>
In message <001a01bfc599$355fc440$31cf54ca@emnb>, "Enzo Michelangeli" writes:
>
>
>> John Gilmore wrote:
>> > Anybody tested the primes in major products lately?
>>
>> Interesting point ... of course, these days one can produce checkable
>> certificates of primality - but I'm not aware of any free software to do
>> it ... is there any?
>
>What about the one quoted below?
>
>Enzo
>
>A beta release of CERTIFIX (a primality proving program I am
>writing) is available. It is based on the Goldwasser, Kilian
>& Atkin algorithm.
>
>CERTIFIX is an executable for Win95, Win98, NT (hardware Intel
>compatible). It is a freeware.
>
>Currently, it can certify a 1024 bit integer in less than
>10 mn (AMD K6-2/450 processor).
>
>Download link:
> http://www.znz.freesurf.fr/files/certifix.zip (300 Kb)
>
>The package contains the 5 following files
> certifix.exe
> certifix.hlp
> readme.txt
> todo.txt
> changes.txt
>
Let me see if I understand -- we're worried that NSA has buried secret
composite numbers in our code. So we're going to solve that problem by
running a random binary -- source isn't in the zip file -- from someone
else?
--Steve Bellovin
