17 Dec
2003
17 Dec
'03
11:17 p.m.
A quick review reveals that this is clearly another "PGP is broken" hoax. The author is assuming that IDEA's * operation has a nonuniform distribution of outputs given a uniform distribution of inputs. Since it is taken mod 65537 (a prime), this is simply not the case - for constant x, x * y mod 65537 is a permutation over y. Everything else flows from this flawed assumption. The rest of the post is silly as well. "Not tested on real PGP data because I couldn't find where the IDEA data starts." Very funny, this info is quite accessible. Also, posting the technique but witholding the code is ridiculous. If the technique worked, it would get implemented within hours. Oh well. It was exciting for a minute or two. Raph