Re: Symmetric Algorithm

["William H. Geiger III" <whgiii@xxxxxxxxxx>]

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In <5llnzc4pie.fsf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, on 10/29/97 
   at 03:23 PM, Assar Westerlund <assar@xxxxxxx> said:

>No.

>It'll make if difficult for US companies to export it.  But that's their
>problem.

>This IETF wg is supposed to make a _specifcation_ that then can be
>implemented in different places.

Absolutely,

*ANY* strong encryption algorithm that we select will run afoul of export
restrictions.

Myself I would like to see a minimum symmetric key size written in to the
specs to avoid people using the OpenPGP name for silly things like RC2/40
and DES/40. This of course would need to be periodically reviewed to keep
up with computer and cryptology advances.

The mandating of RC2/40 was the biggest reason I rejected S/MIME and still
refuse to support it in any of my products.

Key strength, IMNSHO, is the most serious security issue this spec will
face.

- -- 
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William H. Geiger III  http://www.amaranth.com/~whgiii
Geiger Consulting    Cooking With Warp 4.0

Author of E-Secure - PGP Front End for MR/2 Ice
PGP & MR/2 the only way for secure e-mail.
OS/2 PGP 2.6.3a at: http://www.amaranth.com/~whgiii/pgpmr2.html                        
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