[68263] in Cypherpunks
Re: DES cracker.
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Lucky Green)
Fri Oct 18 11:59:12 1996
Date: Fri, 18 Oct 1996 08:43:39 -0700 (PDT)
From: Lucky Green <shamrock@netcom.com>
To: Andreas Bogk <andreas@artcom.de>
Cc: Adam Back <aba@dcs.ex.ac.uk>, mac-crypto@thumper.vmeng.com,
coderpunks@toad.com, cypherpunks@toad.com
In-Reply-To: <y8apw2gfyqr.fsf@hertie.artcom.de>
On 18 Oct 1996, Andreas Bogk wrote:
> The EC-Card system, the European standard for ATM cards, is based on
> DES. A single recovered key would suffice to calculate all PINs every
> current EC card, the number of which runs into the tens of millions.
We have a winner! This target is attractive for two reasons:
1. A single key cracked can compromise the entire system.
2. It is a non-US target. Once the key is cracked, the EC-Card system
would most likely move to 3DES. And the US seems to have no desire to
allow the export of 3DES.
--Lucky
