M.Wagoner (1) writes:

We would like someone to be able or should I say try and crack our encryption. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE.

Our Web site is http://www.sfmc.com Phone number is 1-800-252-9938.

Randy Estridge SafE Mail Corporation

I checked the web site, and found the following snake oil aroma (caused largely by the idiotic commentary and the word "proprietary" on the encryption algorithm...) ------ * SafE Mail utilizes a short 22 character Public Key which I realize is "great" for key exchange. Does this short Public Key the encription code vulnerable to attack? No! The Public Key is generated by a "One Way Hash Function" when the owner of the software names a private key or passwords. This makes the encryption code secure and not vulnerable to attack by unautorized individuals. [Perry's comments: 1) personal pet peve -- using quote marks for emphasis. 2) Er, whats this crap? I understand perhaps generating RSA keys off of a passphrase, but that wouldn't help you with key exchange -- your public key is 1024 bits no matter what you do. As for the rest...] [...] * Is Safe Mail really secure? We believe so. Unlike other encryption software, SafE Mail, through its proprietary encryption algorithm, leaves neither a backdoor nor a master key for any third party decryption of an encrypted file. To achieve extra security, SafE Mail allows an unlimited number of multiple encryptions without corrupting the original file. The output encrypted file bears no hint to the size or type of the original file [Perry's comments: Yeah, like PGP has a back door or anything, or like it prevents superencipherment, or like it leaks what your file was...] ------- Having read the web site, the thing looks like it offers no advantage at all over PGP and that it might be a piece of junk. I say stick with whats known to be good and is free. PGP's price is certainly right, especially when you consider what crap the "commercial" stuff like this usually is. Oh, and to the folks at Safe Mail: I will happily test out the quality of your software for my standard consulting rate. My time is, however, too valuable to waste on stuff like this without being paid. If other people want to have a good time testing your product out, let them feel free. Perry

Umm... how bout some details on your "proprietary" algorithms. How exactly is the public/private key pair generated? etc etc etc... And WTF is "INTERNET-compatible"? And what qualifies your product as "INTERNET-compatible" and PGP as not "INTERNET-compatible"?

From your "Confidence" web page, it seems that a password effectively *IS* the private key, and on another page you state that the "public key" is exactly 22 characters, generated "using a one way hash function", perhaps some hash or variant of a hash of the password. Pretty feeble.

On Mon, 17 Jun 1996, M.Wagoner (1) wrote:

We would like someone to be able or should I say try and crack our encryption. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE.

Our Web site is http://www.sfmc.com Phone number is 1-800-252-9938.

Randy Estridge SafE Mail Corporation

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Jeremey Barrett Senior Software Engineer jeremey@forequest.com The ForeQuest Company http://www.forequest.com/ "less is more." -- Mies van de Rohe. Ken Thompson has an automobile which he helped design. Unlike most automobiles, it has neither speedometer, nor gas gage, nor any of the numerous idiot lights which plague the modern driver. Rather, if the driver makes any mistake, a giant "?" lights up in the center of the dashboard. "The experienced driver", he says, "will usually know what's wrong." -- 'fortune` output

Please get a clue before designing crypto or allowing your marketing people loose on the net. This smells of snake-oil and your pages are full of inacuracies: 1) What is Internet-compatable (PGP works fine over the net, but it is not). If you mean RFC or other standard compatable (i.e. MOSS, S/MIME, PEM), you aren't conformant to any standards. 2) 22 character Public keys are a joke 3) No crypto system is unbreakable unless you are doing some permutation of OTP. Public key systems are definately compromisable with the appropriate application of compute power. If you do not have a clue, don't play with those that do. On Mon, 17 Jun 1996 17:21:36 -0400, the sage safemail@ntrnet.net (M.Wagoner (1)) scribed:

We would like someone to be able or should I say try and crack our encryption. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE.

Our Web site is http://www.sfmc.com Phone number is 1-800-252-9938.

Randy Estridge SafE Mail Corporation

-- ( ( | ( Chris Liljenstolpe <Chris.Liljenstolpe@ssds.com> ) ) (| ), inc. SSDS, Inc; 8400 Normandale Lake Blvd.; Suite 993 business driven Bloomington, MN 55437; technology solutions TEL 612.921.2392 FAX 612.921.2395 Fram Fram Free! PGP Key 1024/E8546BD5 FE 43 BD A6 3C 13 6C DB 89 B3 E4 A1 BF 6D 2A A9