Report available: "Minimal Key Lengths for Symmetric Ciphers"
Derek Atkins
warlord at MIT.EDU
Thu Feb 8 10:16:11 PST 1996
> want you to only use 90 bits for your keys and why they've never heard
> of PGP...
>
> Anyone who listens to crypto advice from people who's purpose in life
> is to listen to *YOU* gets what they deserve. I'll stay with PGP which
> has a 2048 bit key.
The 90-bit key length is for secret key ciphers, not public key
ciphers. There is a conversion metric for public key ciphers based
upon the difficulty of breaking the cipher.
For example, a 1024 bit RSA key is about 85 bits of security, which is
below the 90-bit limit they are proposing. The 90-bits of security
does not mean you are limited to a 90-bit RSA key.
-derek
More information about the cypherpunks-legacy
mailing list