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- From: jgk@osc.COM (Joe Keane)
- Newsgroups: sci.crypt
- Subject: Re: Secure 32-bit checksum needed
- Summary: You need more bits.
- Keywords: entropy
- Message-ID: <5810@osc.COM>
- Date: 7 Oct 92 06:17:09 GMT
- References: <bontchev.717961294@fbihh> <BvLpvv.27I@chinet.chi.il.us>
- Reply-To: Joe Keane <jgk@osc.com>
- Organization: Versant Object Technology, Menlo Park, CA
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- In article <bontchev.717961294@fbihh> bontchev@fbihh.informatik.uni-hamburg.de
- writes:
- >I need a 32-bit cryptographically strong checksum.
-
- I'd say this is a contradiction in terms. Four billion is not a very large
- number. A low-end workstation executes this many instructions in minutes. A
- given message could probably be spoofed with a few weeks of CPU time. Of
- course if you send out many messages, it's that much easier for your opponent
- to find a match. I think even 64 bits isn't all that safe. There's a reason
- why good hash algorithms put out 128 bits or more.
-
- --
- Joe Keane, amateur cryptologist
- jgk@osc.com (uunet!amdcad!osc!jgk)
-