[13246] in Cypherpunks
Re: Clipper Key Escrow Details
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (David Koontz )
Fri May 6 13:13:46 1994
Date: Fri, 6 May 94 10:00:51 PDT
From: koontzd@lrcs.loral.com (David Koontz )
To: cypherpunks@toad.com, grendel@netaxs.com
>From: grendel@netaxs.com (Michael Brandt Handler)
>Posted-Date: Fri, 6 May 1994 07:05:38 -0400
>Regarding the Clipper Key Escrow scheme:
> [1] Who has the ability to submit a warrant and request the key
data from the two controlling government agencies?
Its even worse than that. They have a catch phrase - "other legal
authority", where some do not require a warrant.
> [2] What is to stop someone, once they have my escrowed key data,
>from archiving it for later use?
While not having formally answered this, it has been indicated that the
unit key is sent encrypted to a decoder box, which can disassemble the
LEAF and extract the session key. I believe this decoder is based on a
PC, which leaves one to wonder about even the possibility of timelocking
the transaction.
(the crypto algorithm is contained in a chip on a P.C. board.)
