NODE 746c0069Re: Attacking Norton Encrypt
pstemari@erinet.com (Paul J. Ste. Marie)Fri, 23 Dec 94 22:25:28 PST
At 09:52 PM 12/23/94 IST, rishab@dxm.ernet.in wrote:
>
>Regarding the simple question about Norton Encrypt's security (and ignoring
>the alt.relationship-counsellor interlude), I believe Norton uses DES (for
>'maximum security' or a 'fast proprietary' method for convenience. I don't
>think it has the usual errors (password stored in ciphertext etc), but a
>brute force attack on DES is beyond the means of most Norton users IAC.
Perhaps, but if the earlier post is accurate about it mapping UC to lc and
only accepting 8 characters of password, you've gone from a 56 bit keyspace
to a ~38 bit keyspace. A dictionary attack is certainly feasible--I don't
recall what speeds have been achieved for brute-forcing DES lately.
--Paul J. Ste. Marie