Kent Crispin wrote:

On Fri, Mar 21, 1997 at 03:06:41AM -0600, Toto wrote:

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Attila T. Hun wrote, in blood: [...]

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you got that one right! just the ability to _backtrack_ into the algorithms is a art. One piece of clear text and you're toast.

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You can't tell me the guy who designed the Rubik cube didn't know how to 'beat' it when he was done.

With all due respect, Toto, this is not a valid point. It is easy for someone to design and implement something they can't beat.

Whether PKZ designed in, or was coerced into installing, a backdoor into PGP is an interesting speculation, but immaterial. The only real data you have is the code itself.

I wasn't referring to either PKZ or PGP, but to 'systems', in general. In designing systems of any type, one can often have elements of design which aren't in the blueprint. An example would be an architect who designs a room to echo (or not echo) sound in a certain way, for use as a concert hall or music studio. No amount of analysis of the blueprints will show this 'hidden' design unless the person looking is thinking in the same terms as the designer. Certainly, if the blueprints described the room as a 'sound room', then this might give some a clue as to the hidden elements, but still would not inherently reveal every aspect of what was involved in the design. -- Toto "The Xenix Chainsaw Massacre" http://bureau42.base.org/public/xenix/xenbody.html