--- begin forwarded text Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Wed, 18 Jun 1997 17:01:16 -0400 To: dcsb@ai.mit.edu From: Kent Borg <kentborg@borg.org> Subject: Deschall Fwd: WE FOUND IT! Sender: bounce-dcsb@ai.mit.edu Precedence: bulk Reply-To: Kent Borg <kentborg@borg.org> 56-bit DES has now been publicly cracked! In a chaotic volunteer effort, no less. Cool! -kb, the Kent who's Macintosh searched quite a few billion keys, but did not find it. << start of forwarded material >> ** Date: Wed, 18 Jun 1997 13:46:19 -0600 ** From: Rocke Verser <rcv@dopey.verser.frii.com> ** To: deschall-announce@gatekeeper.megasoft.com ** Subject: WE FOUND IT! ** Sender: owner-deschall-announce@gatekeeper.megasoft.com ** Precedence: bulk ** ** -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- ** ** "Strong cryptography makes the world a safer place." ** ** That's the message RSA has been waiting for us to decipher. ** And we did it! ** ** The correct key (8558891AB0C851B6) was reported to RSA Data Security ** shortly before midnight last night (Mountain Time). RSA's automated ** server acknowledged our win! ** ** The winning computer is a Pentium 90MHz, operated by iNetZ Corporation ** of Salt Lake City, Utah. Their employee, Michael K. Sanders, was the ** individual who was running the DESCHALL client. ** ** Congratulations, Michael. And congratulations to all who participated! ** ** ** Many thanks are due, all around. ** ** Special thanks to Justin Dolske and Matt Curtin, who took enormous ** pressure off of me, early in the project; and who have kept the client ** archives, mailing lists, and gateways humming right along; and who ** diligently responded to *so many* questions on the mailing lists. ** Thanks very much! ** ** Special thanks to Darrell Kindred and Andrew Meggs, whose programming ** skill in their respective fields (fast bitslice clients and fast ** user-friendly Mac PPC clients) is unmatched! ** ** Special thanks to Karl Runge, who has spent many evenings into the wee ** hours (is 5 AM wee?) to develop some outstanding stats and to make sure ** those stats were posted each morning! ** ** Special thanks to Jeff Simmons, and others, whose names tragically ** escape me, who did some early publicity to get the project rolling! ** ** Special thanks to the other developers, Guy Albertelli and Kelly ** Campbell. Guy performed a number of "ports", and Kelly produced the ** first Mac client. ** ** Thanks to countless others, who devoted not just their CPU cycles, but ** their boundless energy as well. ** ** ** I offer both thanks and consolations to our only public "competitor", ** SolNET. ** ** Magnus and Fredrik: As I have said before, SolNET is a class outfit. I ** never once heard you disparage your competition. We thank you! ** ** In a sense, the "win" belongs to all of us, who contributed CPU cycles ** and clients and ideas and innovations. We searched less than 1/4 of the ** keyspace. Worldwide, over half of the keyspace was searched. A ** DESCHALL client may have found "the" key, but you deserve credit for ** helping to bring the "expected date of completion" significantly ahead. ** ** Your Web site gave us a goal to shoot for. A goal which we never met. ** Your clients had many features our users wished for. There is no shame ** in not finding the key. But I know the anguish you must feel after ** putting your hearts and souls into a project for 3-4 months, and not ** being "the" winner. ** ** In my eyes, everyone who participated, whether working for the DESCHALL ** team or the SolNET team is a winner! ** ** ** Last but not least, thanks to my dear wife, Myra, who allowed me to ** engage in this project (when I should have been looking for my next ** contract programming job); and to her and my children, who tolerated ** the disruption to our household routine caused by this project. ** ** ** - - Rocke Verser, DESCHALL organizer, rcv@dopey.verser.frii.com ** ** -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- ** Version: 2.6.2 ** ** iQCVAwUBM6g4wXI7TKUAAAABAQGNrwQAyuvPPGgIaRMmveI/9MwbTq6SbNerD4A3 ** VluN2EW+GCvT1UiyTV2eQ3tJB+9f5RUVnQ77rqsVvME1Go0M1Vckq0VPzBdMYWgq ** laNv8tf4LEkSyu2LrfoLONyvrNmcByRmO8Bwt/QtqICK4gFpXcnoWXaCz4NG6iZf ** 6NtPgJnQh6o= ** =I+bG ** -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ** << end of forwarded material >> -- Kent Borg H: +1-617-776-6899 kentborg@borg.org W: "The language seemed pretty natural to me. I talk a lot like that." - My Minnesota mother Helene commenting on "Fargo" For help on using this list (especially unsubscribing), send a message to "dcsb-request@ai.mit.edu" with one line of text: "help". --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com), Philodox e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/