[14787] in Cypherpunks
Re: Black eyes heal
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Perry E. Metzger)
Mon Jun 6 07:57:28 1994
To: baum@newton.apple.com (Allen J. Baum)
Cc: cypherpunks@toad.com
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 03 Jun 1994 16:54:47 PDT."
<9406032354.AA29053@newton.apple.com>
Reply-To: perry@imsi.com
Date: Mon, 06 Jun 1994 07:49:07 -0400
From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@imsi.com>
Allen J. Baum says:
> I have no doubts that the problem that was revealed will be corrected.
> I'm not sure it was a good idea to reveal the weakness. Imagine how much
> worse it would be (in terms of PR) if lots of phones had been deployed
> before the flaw was found?
Enormous investment has already been made. Furthermore, the EES design
has provisions in the processor for only a 128 bit LEAF. Its hardly
clear that they can just "patch" this in a few weeks.
However, I'll note that Matt felt he had an obligation as a scientist
to reveal the flaw and even to state in his paper how to fix it
(although thats more or less obvious -- increase the checksum to 32 or
64 bits.)
> So, there is a small window in which to take advantage of the PR, and the
> delay in revised chip availablility. Unless there are some major defections
> in Congressional support because of this, I don't think much will change;
> Clipper will become a reality.
I doubt that its that cut and dried. Unless they can convince congress
to undertake a major legal change to make a discredited technology
manditory, no one outside the government will use it.
Perry
