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- Path: sparky!uunet!hela.iti.org!usc!randvax!jim
- From: jim@rand.org (Jim Gillogly)
- Newsgroups: sci.crypt
- Subject: Re: New Encryption Method - a Challenge!
- Message-ID: <3997@randvax.rand.org>
- Date: 10 Nov 92 21:31:21 GMT
- References: <n0e07t@ofa123.fidonet.org>
- Sender: news@randvax.rand.org
- Organization: Banzai Institute
- Lines: 52
- Nntp-Posting-Host: mycroft.rand.org
-
- In article <n0e07t@ofa123.fidonet.org> Erik.Lindano@ofa123.fidonet.org writes:
- > I realize that it must be a lot easier to just post theoretical
- > considerations on such matters than to do any _actual_ decryption,
- > but I thought that the experts here were knowledgeable in a
- > real, practical sense, and capable of putting their obvious
- > knowledge to actual use, that's all. Perhaps I was mistaken.
-
- No need to get offensive.
-
- > The most peculiar thing about your rejection, and that of the other
- > person who replied, is that both of you are rejecting the challenge
- > _without having ever seen the product you are rejecting!_. This
- > worries me immensely. Makes me wonder if you may not simply be
- > avoiding the challenge under some pretenses. Am I mistaken?
-
- Yes, you are. I was one of the people who replied directly, and I pointed
- out that if you want us to tell you how strong the algorithm is, you
- should tell us what the algorithm is. I would be interested in the
- challenge -- but without seeing the algorithm, I don't know whether it's
- worth the trouble to try it. If he's rediscovered Vigenere encipherment
- with 8 bit characters, then we can explain to him what his problem is. If
- it's new and wonderful, he can make a splash. What's the problem?
-
- > But if all these experts are unwilling to even _try_... hmmmm.
-
- Again, if you want cooperation, let's have a reasonable test rather than
- this "if you people here think you're so smart, why are you scared to
- accept any kind of silly challenge I make" attitude. With DES, we saw the
- algorithm and a lot of us took swings at it. Several people have stuck
- algorithms and challenges on sci.crypt and won -- Andreas Nowatzyk, for
- one. Others have proudly displayed their unbreakable algorithms and had
- their clocks cleaned. So -- if you want us to tell you how strong your
- algorithm is, tell us what your algorithm is.
-
- A word of advice to new cipher constructors: figure out what niche you
- think your cipher belongs in. Is it to be stronger than DES? Just as
- strong but faster to calculate? Provably secure in some interesting way?
- Is it a public-key system that doesn't violate any patents? A lot of the
- "new" ciphers we see are cute and perhaps nice for keeping your own diary,
- but have no practical application in the real world, because the only
- niche they're likely to be aimed at is already filled with something
- better.
-
- And another word of advice: don't try constructing new ciphers for some
- niche unless you have practical experience in breaking them. There's no
- way you will anticipate the kinds of attacks that are available without
- starting from the cryptanalysis end.
-
- --
- Jim Gillogly
- U.S. National Debt: $4,128,313,176,663
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