[1278] in bugtraq
Re: Non-PK encryption not vulnerable via low key length?!
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Perry E. Metzger)
Thu Mar 16 16:51:04 1995
To: Software Test Account <softtest@wu1.wl.aecl.ca>
Cc: bugtraq@fc.net
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Thu, 16 Mar 1995 12:00:42 CST."
<Pine.3.88.9503161140.A7840-0100000@wu1.wl.aecl.ca>
Reply-To: perry@imsi.com
Date: Thu, 16 Mar 1995 15:03:19 -0500
From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@imsi.com>
Software Test Account says:
> > Okay, let's see. 2^128 = 3.4e38. Suppose you can somehow try one
> > billion keys per second. Then it will take you 3.4e29 seconds or
> > about 1e22 years to try every possible key. A shorter length of
> > time than it would take with a 1024 bit key, but I don't think I'd
> > lose much sleep over it.
> >
> There must be ways of forcing convergence. Brute force is tacky.
If you know a way to break IDEA or RC4 that is better than brute
force, you'll be very famous when you publish the paper.
Perry
