[1117] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: cracking n-DES
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (A. Padgett Peterson P.E. Informati)
Sat Jun 28 13:16:12 1997
Date: Sat, 28 Jun 1997 10:53:47 -0400 (EDT)
From: "A. Padgett Peterson P.E. Information Security" <PADGETT@hobbes.orl.mmc.com>
To: cryptography@c2.net
Insufficient data.
a) media is usually wrong on some points
b) I would expect that the first thing an educated investigator would do would
be to examine the computer used for the encryption software and then run
some tests.
Key generation would be first to determine just what the
real keyspace was (from the password used that could be as as small as 62
combinations per byte or (2^6)^7 instead of (2^8)^7
Next the encryption mechanism would be examined to see if a different (or
predictable) key was used in the N passes.
Then as mentioned a check would be to see if a header was attached each
time.
(lots of other examinations possible omitted).
Once everything was known about the software in use, then an intelligent
rather than a bruite force attack could be mounted.
c) Then again the 10 digits mentioned "KPfofip0ST" makes me wonder if they
did not just find the key in some other manner since is not a DES key
(might have been his passphrase in which case, if they found *that* it was
probably not by brute forcing any (subset) of DES.
There is corruption in a scandinavian country.
Warmly,
Padgett
