In article <199509031145.VAA12843@oznet02.ozemail.com.au>, lyalc@ozemail.com.au (lyal collins) writes:

Having watched the discussions of recent of the SSL bruting, it occured to me that a variation could also be useful. I understand that setting up RC4 keys is slower that testing for the correct key (I may have misuderstood this bit). As a company using SSL can ahve all it's SSL traffic sniffed, from multiple people accessing, a log can easily be built of message/keys. Is it considered practical to modify the brutessl code to have multiple message data, and test each against a key from allocated key space ? If so, this may mean that perhaps 3 message can be tested against a single in the time two single keys could be tested against one message. An an attack scenario, this is a hell of a lot more "efficient" than current trials have been. I realise this could also be considered a bit of target for the main purpose of demonstrating weaknesses, and improving techiquess.

This technique has been discussed before. It will not work because the 40-bit export version of SSL actually uses 128 bit keys, with 88 of the bits transfered in the clear. The extra 88-bits act as a "salt" to the key. This defeats attempts to do a single key space search for multiple messages. --Jeff -- Jeff Weinstein - Electronic Munitions Specialist Netscape Communication Corporation jsw@netscape.com - http://home.netscape.com/people/jsw Any opinions expressed above are mine.