[46545] in Cypherpunks
Re: 2047 bit keys in PGP
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jiri Baum)
Fri Jan 5 05:39:21 1996
From: Jiri Baum <jirib@sweeney.cs.monash.edu.au>
To: mianigand@unique.outlook.net (Michael C. Peponis)
Date: Fri, 5 Jan 1996 21:26:28 +1100 (EST)
Cc: Laszlo@unique.outlook.net, Vecsey@unique.outlook.net,
<master@internexus.n,cypherpunks@toad.com,mianigand@outlook.net>
In-Reply-To: <199601040009.SAA07299@unique.outlook.net> from "Michael C. Peponis" at Jan 4, 96 05:17:35 am
Reply-To: jirib@cs.monash.edu.au
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hello "Michael C. Peponis" <mianigand@unique.outlook.net>
and Laszlo Vecsey <master@internexus.n,cypherpunks@toad.com>
and mianigand@outlook.net
...
> > Why is there a limit to the size of the key anyway? It's too bad PGP
> > doesn't support any size key (within reason).
...
> Even if you have a fast machine, if the person recieving the message
> could wait a long time to decrypt you 4096 byte encrypted message.
...
This is not really the case. The way PGP is set up, the operations
that take a long time are those that involve the secret key - signing
and decrypting. Encrypting and checking signatures are much quicker.
In other words, the person that chooses the key is the one that'll
be most delayed.
(I think it's something to do with the relative sizes of the exponents.)
To the original poster: PGP *does* support any size key within reason
(where "reason" = "< 2048 bits").
Hope that makes sense...
Adiau - Jiri
- --
If you want an answer, please mail to <jirib@cs.monash.edu.au>.
On sweeney, I may delete without reading!
PGP 463A14D5 (but it's at home so it'll take a day or two)
PGP EF0607F9 (but it's at uni so don't rely on it too much)
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: 2.6.2i
iQCVAwUBMOz8zSxV6mvvBgf5AQHBbwP/dz69AssU0ZXHB0XiyZ58Pa9S4aDVrbua
aHhJWsWDPhKizXlon7htnXhqNSM1IZylm0Gre1wCLSb2Bbop6IzHRW6vNHlIX5om
A2zeUBkB4g0roZh3hSRzsTVf+7xGhE3iD+TnuQHx/n0v4ij52KHYJ6d6NLT5it/K
sRdVcQLADgU=
=RbMC
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
