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The following archive was created by hippie-mail 7.98617-22 on Sat Apr 10 1999 - 01:18:25
Jim Gillogly (jim@acm.org)
Thu, 04 Feb 1999 08:27:48 -0800
Another (?) Anonymous (AA) writes:
JG>> This idea, using (e.g.) 512-bit RSA to encrypt k bits of an otherwise
JG>> unencrypted A|N message, doesn't address the export issue at all, since
it
JG>> doesn't interfere with the gov't reading the message.
AA>(Disclaimer: it's 11:00 at night; I'm almost sure I'm wrong somewhere. :)
Yeah, we all try to think at night sometimes. Pardon me while I
check your time zone and narrow you down a bit. :)
AA> I think nobody@remailer.ie was talking about using the construct for more
AA> efficient exportable symmetric confidentiality by taking the public keys
out of
AA> the picture -- if not, allow me to propose it. :-)
Hmm -- the message from nobody@remailer.ie hasn't reached here.
The Anonymous I was responding to (could youse please pick some
persistent nyms??!?) posted through mix@anon.lcs.mit.edu and was
making the opposite suggestion: that the symmetric keys be taken
out of the picture as follows:
A> Would the same thing work for RSA encryption without any symmetric keys?
A> Send N-k bits of the transformed message in the clear, and the remaining
A> k bits RSA encrypted.
A>
A> For systems which express export controls in terms of symmetric key sizes
A> this could be a reasonable alternative.
A>
A> Even if you're allowed only 512 bit RSA keys, it still seems like you'd
A> need a bigger machine to crack them than 56 bit DES keys.
So Anonymous is suggesting that if you see that the allowed key
length for asymmetric keys allows stronger encryption than the
key length for symmetric keys, you can choose only asymmetric and
still achieve reasonable performance using a variant of the construct
I suggested for optimizing chaffing/winnowing performance. I agreed,
and pointed out that this doesn't circumvent export restrictions
altogether as does chaffing/winnowing.
Could you explain in more detail how you use this construct to
take the public keys out of the picture?
-- Jim Gillogly 14 Solmath S.R. 1999, 16:14 12.19.5.16.9, 3 Muluc 2 Pax, Fifth Lord of Night
The following archive was created by hippie-mail 7.98617-22 on Sat Apr 10 1999 - 01:18:25