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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.hawaii.edu!ames!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!gatech!news.mathworks.com!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!dispatch.news.demon.net!demon!giskard.demon.co.uk!dale From: dale@giskard.demon.co.uk (Dale Shuttleworth) Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.os.linux.networking,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: need secure OS to entrust millions to Followup-To: comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.os.linux.networking,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Date: Mon, 11 Mar 1996 17:19:42 GMT Organization: Dale's home Linux box. Lines: 37 Message-ID: <Do45Gu.1y@giskard.demon.co.uk> References: <4gi6t6$3h9@lace.colorado.edu> <1996Feb25.152559.8977@jarvis.cs.toronto.edu> <4gvchb$ln5@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU> <4h7rdd$qeu@park.uvsc.edu> <4hi93v$qas@keltia.freenix.fr> <4hsv73$d3h@park.uvsc.edu> X-NNTP-Posting-Host: giskard.demon.co.uk X-Newsreader: TIN [UNIX 1.3 950824BETA PL0] Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.misc:91043 comp.os.linux.development.system:19119 comp.os.linux.networking:31322 comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc:2616 comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc:2435 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:15283 Hi, Terry Lambert (terry@lambert.org) wrote: : roberto@keltia.freenix.fr (Ollivier Robert) wrote: [...] : ] PK Crypto relies on _secrecy_ of the key (and its size of course, you can't : ] rely on 384 bits PGP keys for example), not on the algorithm itself or : ] something else you may try to hide. : : So you are arguing that the product of two prime numbers : renders the prime numbers themselves "secret". That seems like a reasonable argument. Just because the two prime numbers seem more readily accessible than say a DES key does not mean that they are easier to recover. : I claim that since the search space is known, they are "obscure". Then there are very few systems where the search space cannot be determined (I can't think of any - if there are, they would have some rather interesting characteristics). You seem to be saying that DES, IDEA, RSA and even the one time pad are all alogrithms which rely on security through obscurity. Your argument is quite irrefutible if you don't use the meaning usually attached to "security through obscurity". Dale. -- ****************************************************************************** * Dale Shuttleworth * * Email: dale@giskard.demon.co.uk * ******************************************************************************