Passphrase generation
Internaut
unde0275 at frank.mtsu.edu
Tue Feb 11 06:11:46 PST 1997
Hi,
I am wanting to learn how to generate a passphrase that is at least as
strong as the IDEA algorithm. I have looked several other places on the
web for an answer to this, but they all had different things to say that
didn't add up (no pun intended :).
The IDEA algorithm it seems is 2^128 = 3.402823669209e+38 = 16 bytes
(charactors).
The charactor count seems kinda small (I am presuming the 16 charactors are
truely random).
Indeed, 128(ASCII charactor set)^16 = 5.192296858535e+33.
Is my thinking right here?
Is it better to do this- 94(printable ASCII set)^20 = 2.901062411315e+39,
yielding 20 charactors?
Also, if you come up with a phrase and put enough (perhaps 5 or 6) ASCII
nonsense in there for it not to be in any crack dictionaries, how random is
that? Is it only as random as the extra charactors you put in? How would
you calculate that?
Also, how many charactors do you have to add of a set to add its
permulations (i.e. Does gibber&sh add all ASCII symbols to the equation)?
Thanks, Internaut
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