(I've changed the thread title from "CYPHERPUNKS TO THE RESCUE"...after all, doesn't that describe _most_ of our threads?) Norm Hardy wrote:
At 14:43 1994/07/25 -0700, Sandy Sandfort wrote:
The questions are: Could standard auto and garage door openers easily be retrofitted? Could a "crypto remote" with its own CPU be made small enough to fit into a hand-held unit? Could such a system be made for a reasonable cost? ... Sounds like an application for a "challenge-response" system. But that would require transmission from garage unit to car unit.
This is also the motivating idea behind "zero-knowledge interactive proof systems." Systems in which interception of the sent information is useless to the attacker. As Norm mentions, the "lock" (which can be many things besides garage door openers, e.g., proximity-based door locks, or auto locks themselves, or gun locks, etc.) needs to "do something" that essentially creates a problem that only the key can solve. A simple example is public key-private key: the lock demands that a message be decrypted, or signed, or whatever, by the key. A good project for Cypherpunks as a group to work on, which I took to be Sandy's meaning? Well, we don't have any real group projects, and this is unlikely to be one. A good project for some particular Cypherpunk? Maybe. I understand the electronic lock folks (card locks, hotels, etc.) have crypto expertise of varying extents (and bluntly, probably more than most of us have) and they certainly have the expertise in other areas. Maybe an existing chip could be added to "Genie"-type openers. But let's not forget that such a project, if it succeeded, would result in legislation requiring Garage Door Opener Escrow. --Tim May -- .......................................................................... Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@netcom.com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-688-5409 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^859433 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."