Cryptography Articles in April 94 Dr Dobbs Journal

Check out the April 94 issue of Dr. Dobbs Journal.  There are
four articles on cryptography, and a cryptanalysis contest.

The first article is by myself, about the Cambridge Algorithms
Workshop last November.  The topic of the workshop was high-speed
encryption, and ten complete algorithms were presented.  The
article discusses the workshop, briefly mentions the algorithms,
and talks a little about designing secure algorithms.

The second article, by Peter Smith, talks more about the LUC
cipher.  If you remember his article in the Jan 93 DDJ, LUC is an
RSA variant that uses Lucas functions instead of exponentiation. 
Even though Smith claims to have invented this scheme, it has
been around since the early 1980s (see p. 318 of my book).  In
any case, it's a good article.

William Stalling's article is about SHA.  It explains how the
algorithm works very nicely.  (If this is any indication of how
his new book will look, I am looking forward to it.)

And finally, I have an article describing a new secret-key
algorithm: Blowfish.  I presented Blowfish at the Cambridge
Workshop.  The article includes a description of the algorithm
and source code (that hopefully will compile on any machine--call
me if you have problems).

DDJ is sponsoring a cracking context for Blowfish.  You don't
have to break the entire algorithm, just finding a weakness is
sufficient.  The best attack received by 1 April 1995 wins. 
Awards are $750 for first place, $250 for second, and $100 for
third.

Subscribers should expect to receive their copy of the magazine
in a week or so, and newsstand copies will be available by mid-
March.

Bruce

**************************************************************************
* Bruce Schneier
* Counterpane Systems         For a good prime, call 391581 * 2^216193 - 1
* schneier@chinet.chi.il.us
**************************************************************************

From owner-cypherpunks  Tue Mar  1 13:49:25 1994

Speaking of DDJ's nice crypto articles for April 94, I just had
a truly weird thing arrive in the mail today.  It was a plastic
mailer bag from DDJ which contained Vol 1., Issue 1. of DDJ's
Developer Update.  The plastic envelope was larger than needed
for such a mailing.  All the bag contains is the 8 page Dev.
Update issue and a card with my name and the return address for
the snail mail folks to be able to process the package.

There was NOT any April 94 issue of DDJ.  Have I been ripped,
or did DDJ goof, or was this mailing supposed to contain only
the 8 page thinggie???

If anyone receives their DDJ April 94 issue >ALONG< with the
developer update, please let me know so I can bitch. :-) If
anyone received the same package without the DDJ issue, 
I ask that you also let me know so that I silence myself
patiently for the DDJ April 94 issue. :-)


However, one nice thing is that one of the aside boxes at
the left side of the 8 page thinggie has "Crypto Chip
Debuts."  This is on the cover under News Briefs.

Okay, it's small, I'll type it:

"National Semiconductor has released the iPower encryption chip
which is designed for use in PCMCIA cards and provides a range of
security features.  The chip can encrypt via multiple encryption
algorithms (none listed) and will self destruct upon any
tampering attempt, using a self contained chemical.  Cards that
use the iPower chip can also provide additional functions such
as tracking users access times.  The iPower division is based
is (sic) Santa Clara, CA 408-721-8797."  #include <std_
copyright_disclaimer, etc. for Dr. Dobbs.>

"ara" == Arsen Ray Arachelian <rarachel@prism.poly.edu> writes:

ara> Speaking of DDJ's nice crypto articles for April 94, I just had a
ara> truly weird thing arrive in the mail today.  It was a plastic
ara> mailer bag from DDJ which contained Vol 1., Issue 1. of DDJ's
ara> Developer Update.  The plastic envelope was larger than needed
ara> for such a mailing.  All the bag contains is the 8 page Dev.
ara> Update issue and a card with my name and the return address for
ara> the snail mail folks to be able to process the package.  My
  Dr. Dobb's Developer Update contained a sheet of paper
which stated DDDU is a new monthly update to the magazine in order for
DD to cover "timely, ... news & industry oriented, ... product
specific" information.

  The April DDJ arrived yesterday.

michael