NRC Session Hiss

Lucky Green shamrock at netcom.com
Mon Jun 3 20:35:42 PDT 1996


At 15:58 6/3/96, Raph Levien wrote:

>   Basically, an exportable S/MIME client can transmit messages up to
>1024/40 bit RSA/RC2 (or RSA/DES), and receive messages up to 512/64 bit
>RSA/RC2 (or RSA/DES, but in the latter case I would imagine it's actually
>restricted to 512/56 because of the keysize of DES). Note that the
>asymmetry actually points in different directions for the public and
>symmetric keysizes.

What will be the maximum keysize for a domestic encryption client? It it is
larger than 1024 bits, there will be interoperability problems with foreign
clients. If the domestic client is limited to 1024 bits, it would set a bad
precedence, since it would effectively require that the encryption key is
smaller than the largest signature key.


Disclaimer: My opinions are my own, not those of my employer.

-- Lucky Green <mailto:shamrock at netcom.com>
   PGP encrypted mail preferred.








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