Re: how to `go underground' (was Re: The Global Fix is In)
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- In <199706221002.LAA06654@server.test.net>, on 06/22/97 at 11:02 AM, Adam Back <aba@dcs.ex.ac.uk> said:
Perhaps someone can have a go at adding this to PGP3.x, once Stale has finished scanning the source code books, and has posted the source.
Also, I hear that PGP3.x has support for RSA keys, but won't generate them? Perhaps we can add that back in also.
I believe that it is only the freeware PGP 5.0 from the MIT site that has RSA key generation disabled. The commercial version should be able to generate both key formats. - -- - --------------------------------------------------------------- William H. Geiger III http://www.amaranth.com/~whgiii Geiger Consulting Cooking With Warp 4.0 Author of E-Secure - PGP Front End for MR/2 Ice PGP & MR/2 the only way for secure e-mail. OS/2 PGP 2.6.3a at: http://www.amaranth.com/~whgiii/pgpmr2.html - --------------------------------------------------------------- -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.3a Charset: cp850 Comment: Registered_User_E-Secure_v1.1b1_ES000000 iQCVAwUBM609+49Co1n+aLhhAQHjjQQAw/euyv+RsR/PPUBiG4+Ou7BlXrriq0AI 1L8kiDgsndAX+5nnNxItM8P9iy0ALZolShztS/UL4ppaCGKBfcsmZy8gFRvfXii2 DLZ8TQdzFUwmomqIGZZIMo4JQYOzEbB+kqg6gWxW7AnbURKVHXW1md2rreSBy0k9 uZU5pD26cC0= =rSmJ -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
William Geiger <whgiii@amaranth.com> writes:
Adam Back <aba@dcs.ex.ac.uk> said:
Also, I hear that PGP3.x has support for RSA keys, but won't generate them? Perhaps we can add that back in also.
I believe that it is only the freeware PGP 5.0 from the MIT site that has RSA key generation disabled. The commercial version should be able to generate both key formats.
I've got a copy of PGP 5.0, and yes, it can generate RSA keys also. I was really quite unclear as to why the freeware one should have reduced functionality, and as we are finally going to get source code, I figured it'd be easy to rememdy this deficiency. Still, I am curious as to why this might be. One guesses it might have something to do with PGP's financial interest to move the internet user base away from RSA keys towards El Gamal/DSS key pairs, so that they can remove RSA backwards compatibility from the commercial versions, if it comes to that. (Re. patent and licesning hassles from the litigious legal-beagles at RSA). Perhaps. Clarification welcomed. Adam -- Have *you* exported RSA today? --> http://www.dcs.ex.ac.uk/~aba/rsa/ print pack"C*",split/\D+/,`echo "16iII*o\U@{$/=$z;[(pop,pop,unpack"H*",<> )]}\EsMsKsN0[lN*1lK[d2%Sa2/d0<X+d*lMLa^*lN%0]dsXx++lMlN/dsM0<J]dsJxp"|dc`
At 05:42 PM 6/22/97 +0100, Adam Back wrote:
I was really quite unclear as to why the freeware one should have reduced functionality, and as we are finally going to get source code, I figured it'd be easy to rememdy this deficiency.
Still, I am curious as to why this might be.
One guesses it might have something to do with PGP's financial interest to move the internet user base away from RSA keys towards El Gamal/DSS key pairs, so that they can remove RSA backwards compatibility from the commercial versions, if it comes to that. (Re. patent and licesning hassles from the litigious legal-beagles at RSA). Perhaps.
Getting out from under the patent restrictions is a big win, purely aside from the details of any hassles with RSA Inc. Also, because MD5 is looking shaky these days, they do need to move people toward versions with SHA1 signatures. Since the commercial versions do EG/DSS, and people will be sending messages signed with DSS, and wanting to receive mail encrypted with EG, it's worthwhile for them to push people to migrate to the new formats; the freeware version is an obvious lever, even though I'm sure there will be fixes to add RSA key generation back in Real Soon. (Also, you don't _need_ a fix - just keep the old PGP around, and use it when you want to generate a key.) # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart, +1-415-442-2215 stewarts@ix.netcom.com # You can get PGP outside the US at ftp.ox.ac.uk/pub/crypto/pgp # (If this is a mailing list or news, please Cc: me on replies. Thanks.)
participants (3)
-
Adam Back -
Bill Stewart -
William H. Geiger III