The dumbest question...
Brian J. Harvey
bjh at northshore.ecosoft.com
Wed Mar 30 19:04:17 PST 1994
... is the one you don't ask. So here I go...
#1
Isn't "part of the deal" of patent granting a requirement that the
details of the thing being patented be revealed. If so, why isn't IBM
required to reveal the details of s-box design? After all, they hold the
patent on DES.
#2
Skipjack has a 80 bit key which is proposed to be "escrowed" in two parts.
Now considering that the likeliest attack on DES is a brute force key
search of 2^55 keys, isn't it true that a compromise of one half of a
"Clipper key" would allow a brute force attack to "discover the remaining
40 bits. If 2^55 is possible, then 2^40 is even easier, no?
Brian
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