ArcotSign (was Re: Does security depend on hardware?)

Ben Laurie ben at algroup.co.uk
Tue Sep 22 12:59:58 PDT 1998



David Jablon wrote:
> 
> Bruce Schneier wrote:
> >> The advantages are that offline password guessing is impossible.
> 
> At 03:24 PM 9/22/98 +0100, Ben Laurie wrote:
> > The 'I' word always makes me nervous - do you really mean that, or do
> > you just mean "very difficult"?
> 
> Why be nervous?  It's not that hard to prevent off-line
> guessing of the PIN, given access to just the client's stored
> data.  Here "impossible" means "as hard as breaking your
> favorite PK method".

Which is:

a) not impossible
b) not proven to be as difficult as we think it is (cf. quantum
computers, novel factorisation methods).

That's why.

Cheers,

Ben.

-- 
Ben Laurie            |Phone: +44 (181) 735 0686| Apache Group member
Freelance Consultant  |Fax:   +44 (181) 735 0689|http://www.apache.org/
and Technical Director|Email: ben at algroup.co.uk |
A.L. Digital Ltd,     |Apache-SSL author     http://www.apache-ssl.org/
London, England.      |"Apache: TDG" http://www.ora.com/catalog/apache/

WE'RE RECRUITING! http://www.aldigital.co.uk/






More information about the cypherpunks-legacy mailing list