Whoops. I have a nasty feeling that a brushed key might just have sent an unedited version to the list. If so, my apologies. On Dec 11, 10:27am, Alan Olsen wrote:

- Bruce Schneier has an article on GOST. (A Soviet varient on DES.)

GOST is not a variant on DES. It is the Soviet equivalent of DES. The algorithms do have some similarities (eg. the use of S-boxes to provide diffusion), it is a Feistal network, but is in other ways interestingly different. I believe that it has been undergoing quite a bit of Western cryptanalysis over the past year, although I have not seen any results as yet. IMO, one of the most interesting features of GOST is that the S-boxes are not specified in the algorithm's definition. Apparently you had to apply to the government for them, and they would respond with ones they wanted you to have. It is presumed that the security of the ones you were given depended on how much they trusted you, and how much they wanted what you were protecting to remain a secret. I recall that Matt (?) posted a set of standard non-classified (probably low-security) Soviet S-boxes for GOST a couple of months ago. Ian.