4 ms·
Why would the attacker use RSA-155? The obvious answer is data size because all of the files have a symmetric key that must be encrypted in the field size and c
by jl2718 4y ago
Why would the attacker use RSA-155? The obvious answer is data size because all of the files have a symmetric key that must be encrypted in the field size and communicated. Let's not go into any helpful discussions around that, but, I would like to ask if there is another reason. Perhaps the attacker uses the exact same procedure to crack their own keys because they have to assume that their private key is compromised and/or unsafe to use in a decryption scenario.
Also, I just realized how cryptocurrency wallet draining happens with these infections. I thought it was because they scanned the whole drive for private keys and sent those separately. It seems it's probably more accidental: The user gets to send them one file to decrypt.
- rocqua 4y agoFor other confused readers, RSA with 512 bits uses 155 decimal digits. Hence RSA-155. This seems to be old notation from the RSA challenge that was clasiffied by the decimal length of numbers rather than the bit-length. Note that RSA-155bit is much worse than RSA-512bit. Both are insecure and should not be used, but you are still looking at the difference of "you need to rent a server farm to crack is" and "you need a laptop to crash it". I'm probably underselling how trivial RSA-155 is to crack.