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- From: boyd@acsu.buffalo.edu (Daniel F Boyd)
- Newsgroups: sci.crypt,alt.security.pgp
- Subject: Re: PKP/RSA comments on PGP legality
- Message-ID: <Bz7J39.8tD@acsu.buffalo.edu>
- Date: 13 Dec 92 16:57:08 GMT
- References: <1992Dec12.192210.10839@netcom.com> <WCS.92Dec13002027@rainier.ATT.COM> <1992Dec13.063111.26607@netcom.com>
- Sender: nntp@acsu.buffalo.edu
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-
- In article <1992Dec13.063111.26607@netcom.com> strnlght@netcom.com
- (David Sternlight) writes:
- > As I understand it, the details of the S-boxes were not [published
- > in the Federal Register] (though they can, I suppose be gotten via
- > decompiling or examining source code), yet without them one could
- > not implement DES and thus they are an essential part of the
- > algorithm, in Bill's terms.
-
- You're right in the particulars, but very wrong in general.
-
- The Federal Register is the listing of all the regulations that the
- government has made. When they change the food-labeling laws so that
- "Monosodium Glutamate" must always be written in 12-point Palatino
- Bold -- the Federal Register is where it gets listed. They wouldn't
- publish DES there in any case because it's not where it goes.
-
- The DES algorithm is published in a FIPS PUB, which you can get from
- the government printing office. And the GPO will send it anywhere,
- worldwide. They would send it out even if the address is "KGB
- Headquarters, Lubyanka, Moscow" (assuming the KGB's check doesn't
- bounce -- possibly an unwarranted assumption).
-
- There is NO need to disassemble software or examine microchips under a
- microscope in order to reimplement DES. You can look it up in any
- technical library -- probably even the Moscow University library.
- It's a PUBLIC algorithm.
-
- Why it's still illegal to export DES chips is a mystery to me; the
- ones you buy all say "Malaysia" on them anyway...
-
-
-
- --
- Daniel F. Boyd -- boyd@cs.buffalo.edu -a +X -x -e -m -S -F"> "
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