4 ms·
> Even if it comes from the NSA it doesn't necessarily mean it's backdoored I suppose you could say the same thing about someone with a history of robbing bank
by craftyguy 8y ago
> Even if it comes from the NSA it doesn't necessarily mean it's backdoored
I suppose you could say the same thing about someone with a history of robbing banks.. just because they walked into your bank doesn't mean they are about to rob it (but it's highly likely they are).
- tptacek 8y agoIf someone with a history of robbing banks arrived at my bank with a ski mask and a bulging duffle bag, I would say "go away, bank robber". The analogy to cryptography would be the NSA proposing yet another PKRNG, of any kind. On the other hand, if someone with a history of robbing banks called me on the phone and asked me what the interest rates on my checking accounts were, I would tell them, because they can't rob my bank over the phone. The analogy here would be to the NSA suggesting a streamlined, simplified ARX block cipher transform, a backdoor in which would imply some fundamentally unknown property of block ciphers that would presumably jeopardize a whole variety of other academic ciphers, and would not accomplish the NOBUS property that NSA requires of backdoors in things they encourage USG assets to use themselves.
- betterunix2 8y agoThe NSA actually has a history of solid block cipher and hash function proposals: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Encryption_Standard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Encryption_Standard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA-1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA-1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skipjack_(cipher) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skipjack_(cipher)