[2504] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: NYT Article on Groat Spy Case
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Phil Karn)
Tue Apr 14 13:39:13 1998
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 10:27:43 -0700 (PDT)
From: Phil Karn <karn@qualcomm.com>
To: ptrei@securitydynamics.com
CC: reinhold@world.std.com, cryptography@c2.net
In-reply-to:
<6B5344C210C7D011835C0000F801276601003696@exna01.securitydynamics.com>
(ptrei@securitydynamics.com)
One semi-defense against trojan attacks on crypto systems
can be seen in CDSA - Intel's Common Data Security Architecture.
Unless all the software that implements CDSA is freely available in
source form, I wouldn't trust it as much as the stuff I'm using now.
That's an important point to make, I think. We do get a certain level
of protection just by using security software and operating systems
with publicly available source code that can be widely scrutinized for
bugs and deliberate back doors.
Phil
