http://pathfinder.cum/netly/forgeries/709PGPCRACK.html The Netly News June 22, 1997 2048-bit PGP Cracked!!! by Declan McCullagh (declan@well.cum) In an astounding turn of events, only days after the DES Challenge lay broken on the floor of crypto opponents, the crypto community has been rocked by the breaking of a 2048-bit PGP 5.0 cyphertext that was posted to the Cypherpunks mailing list by Pearl Harbor Computers in the "PGP Crack Challenge." Alec McCrackin, a Cypherpunk, posted the solution to the challenge a matter of minutes after the post containing the cyphertext arrived on the list. Although McCrackin was tight-lipped about the means used to decypher the challenge data, several anonymous Cypherpunk sources indicated that it has been known for months that PGP encrypted files could easily be read by using the backdoor in the Stronghold encryption software to decipher PGP files. "Cypherpunks can't write code." stated a Kook of the Month winner who prefered to remain anonymous. "I posted the solution to the list back in '92." stated another anonymous Cypherpunk source. "Check the archives." The source went on to add that he thought it was very suspicious that the contest was won by the person acting as the Trusted Third Party who was holding the secret key used to encrypt the message in escrow. Alec McCrackin, the Trusted Third Party and contest winner, expressed surprise and dismay that anyone would raise the question of abuse of authority in the matter. "Key escrow was needed in order to meet the legitmate needs of contest enforcement." McCrackin said. "Without key escrow, there would be no means to guarantee that the contest data did not contain child pornography or drug trafficking information." A company spokesman at PGP Inc. stated that the company did not forsee any major downturn in company revenue, since PGP Inc. had recently acquired rights to a leading source of SpamBot technology. Phil Zimmerman, who was forced out of the company as a condition of the acquisition agreement, said of his replacement, "Dimitri is a cocksucker." A reporter from Markets Magazine claims to have gotten inside information about the PGP crack, but can't remember what his source actually said. "I do remember his name, though. It was Bob Hettinga." the reporter stated. When asked what import this news had for the Clinton administration's plans for crypto export policy, a secret Whithouse source who has had me over for dinner several times with some of D.C.'s most prominent movers and shakers (and who lets me drive his Mercedes every time I give him a favorable mention in an article) said, "To tell the truth, most of us have been encrypting details of our dirty deals with PGP, so we may not be around long enough for our views to matter." ------------------------- DeclanMcCullagh Time Ink. The Nutly News Network Washington Correspondent http://netlynews.com/