2048-bit key...I'm leery
Ok, call me a skeptic. I made to tries at generating a 2048-bit key on my 33-MHZ 386 machine using PGP 2.6.2. Yes, I know I only get 2047 bits, but that's not what bothers me. What bothers me is the first key generation only took thirty seconds, and the second one under ten minutes. Two questions: 1) Why such disparity in the two times? 2) Can the key generation possibly be done on my machine that quickly? I was expecting it to take at least several hours, based on what I've been reading in the cryptology groups.
Once I've generated a 2048-bit key, how can I update my key on the keyservers? -jon ( --------[ Jonathan D. Cooper ]--------[ entropy@intnet.net ]-------- ) ( PGP 2.6.2 keyprint: 31 50 8F 82 B9 79 ED C4 5B 12 A0 35 E0 9B C0 01 ) ( home page: http://hyperreal.com/~entropy/ ]-------[ Key-ID: 4082CCB5 )
You don't "update" your key, you add your new one, so now you have two keys on the keyservers; your old one and your new one. -derek
For the first key you were just plain lucky. Most likely the first or second number you tried happened to be a prime, so it found its p and q fairly easily. Thats all. The 10 minutes is much closer to the average expected time.. But the probability is linear between the two primes you choose, so you happened to choose _just before_ a prime. Lucky you! -derek
participants (3)
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Derek Atkins -
Jonathan Cooper -
lce＠wwa.com