Re: On living with the 56-bit key length restriction

Missouri FreeNet Administration (measl@mfn.org)
Wed, 23 Dec 1998 10:14:57 -0600 (CST)

• Next message: Cicero: "Re: On living with the 56-bit key length restriction"
• Previous message: sameer: "C2Net announces OpenSSL Project"
• In reply to: Mail System Internal Data: "DON'T DELETE THIS MESSAGE -- FOLDER INTERNAL DATA"
• Next in thread: Antonomasia: "Re: On living with the 56-bit key length restriction"

Greetings.
        Mr. Shen brings up a many valid points.

        A question I posed to the sci.crypt group some time ago
(the body of which shows conclusively that I am here politically, but
*not* as an actual cryptographer), was the age old "how can you know when
you are done" with brute force attacks against a multiply encrypted
message. the end result was a hemming-and-hawing which amounts to
"you won't always be able to tell". If I understand it correctly,
a well designed ciphertext should be "random" in appearance. How would
an attacker know when the ciphertext within the ciphertext has been
uncovered? (Yes, I realize I am showing my ignorance here - all the better
to get *simple* answers with <hint>)

Is it (theoretically or practically) so easy that if I was to post an
encrypted message, along with the type of encryption used, the original
language, the key length of, say, 30 bits, and how many times it had been
re-encrypted, that the message could actually be successfully attacked in
a reasonable time?

Yours,
J.A. Terranson
sysadmin@mfn.org

--
If Governments really want us to behave like civilized human beings, they
should give serious consideration towards setting a better example:
Ruling by force, rather than consensus; the unrestrained application of
unjust laws (which the victim-populations were never allowed input on in
the first place); the State policy of justice only for the rich and 
elected; the intentional abuse and occassionally destruction of entire
populations merely to distract an already apathetic and numb electorate...
This type of demogoguery must surely wipe out the fascist United States
as surely as it wiped out the fascist Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
The views expressed here are mine, and NOT those of my employers,
associates, or others.  Besides, if it *were* the opinion of all of
those people, I doubt there would be a problem to bitch about in the
first place...
--------------------------------------------------------------------

• Next message: Cicero: "Re: On living with the 56-bit key length restriction"
• Previous message: sameer: "C2Net announces OpenSSL Project"
• In reply to: Mail System Internal Data: "DON'T DELETE THIS MESSAGE -- FOLDER INTERNAL DATA"
• Next in thread: Antonomasia: "Re: On living with the 56-bit key length restriction"