...

By the way, since RSA is such a vocal opponent of the Clipper chip on the grounds of its secret Skipjack algorithm, why does it market secret algorithms like RC4 and RC2? Does this seen like a double face to anyone else?

----------------------------------------------------------- Russell Ross email: rross@sci.dixie.edu 1260 N 1280 W voice: (801)628-8146 St. George, UT 84770-4953

Patented does not equal secret. The argument against Clipper (at least one of them ;-), is that it has not been subjected to review outside of the NSA.

I believe the code for RC4 and RC2 is accessible and has been subjected to review by many in the crypto field - you just can't use it legally without a license.

Noam

Source code for them is available for $25,000, but only binaries are available otherwise. The source code for RC4 was leaked or reverse-engineered, so it is widely known now, but RSA has never released the algorithm officially. I have found no documentation on the algorithm behind RC2. They are in fact secret, proprietary algorithms, with the exception of the unofficial RC4 code. ----------------------------------------------------------- Russell Ross email: rross@sci.dixie.edu 1260 N 1280 W voice: (801)628-8146 St. George, UT 84770-4953