[3597] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: new 448 bit key by Indian firm
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Adam Back)
Fri Nov 6 13:46:32 1998
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1998 23:42:54 GMT
From: Adam Back <aba@dcs.ex.ac.uk>
To: bill.stewart@pobox.com
CC: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net, cryptography@c2.net
In-reply-to: <3.0.5.32.19981104234056.008b6880@idiom.com> (message from Bill
Stewart on Wed, 04 Nov 1998 23:40:56 -0800)
Bill Stewart writes:
> 448 bits sounds a lot like MD5-based encryption - perhaps
> Luby-Rackoff or MDC? Or a homegrown system, doing successive MD5s
> or something? MD5 is no longer the safest hash these days....
More likely Blowfish for two reasons i) the article mentioned blowfish
at the bottom (;-), and ii) blowfish keys can be up to 448 bits.
Could be snake oil, or could be result of letting marketroid near
press release. The press release was very confused in general.
Adam
