This was discussed on the cryptography@c2 list, though somebody did a nice job of putting the disjointed email conversations into readable order for slashdot. The key to the "new" method is solving to 2**X == 1 mod N which is the discrete log problem, just like the previous "new" "crack" of RSA, then using that answer to solve the factoring, not necessarily that efficiently. Since the discrete log problem is about as hard as factoring, a not-blazingly-efficient solution to the discrete log part is less efficient that the best factoring methods. At 01:42 PM 2/5/01 -0800, Alan Olsen wrote:
Yep. Slashdot has a quote from Ron Rivest on why it is not a break or a big deal. (The method works, but it is *slower* than factoring.)
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/02/05/1911258&mode=flat
Thanks! Bill Bill Stewart, bill.stewart@pobox.com PGP Fingerprint D454 E202 CBC8 40BF 3C85 B884 0ABE 4639