RC40 and what we still need to do

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I have been watching the backlash of the cracking of RC40 and am quite 
impressed with the fact that it is being used as a positive reason for 
repealing ITAR.  I expected the media to jump on the "hacker" bandwagon 
and denounce the efforts.

However, I think there is still value in writing the software that will 
allow cooperation amoung hundreds or thousands of people.  That way, we 
could harness the space CPU of machines all over the globe and make the 
cracking of this kind of stuff routine.  So instead of taking 8 days, it 
takes only a day or so, further eliminating the idea that it "takes too 
long to be worthwhile".  Maybe there would even be value in going at a 
128-bit key (granted, it would take a year).

I'd anticipate with proper advertising, easy-to-use software, and 
little programming knowledge require, we could easily harness 10,000+ 
machines and a few dozen parallel machines.

I know we have a 99.9% idle MasPAR I can contribute to the effort, which 
should be able to do 1million+ keys/sec.  It's just dying to have a 
purpose....

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____           Robert A. Hayden      <=> hayden@krypton.mankato.msus.edu
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The shadowy figure took form and announced "I am "Robert A. Hayden" and I say ...
> However, I think there is still value in writing the software that will 
> allow cooperation amoung hundreds or thousands of people.  That way, we 
> could harness the space CPU of machines all over the globe and make the 
> cracking of this kind of stuff routine.
> 
> I'd anticipate with proper advertising, easy-to-use software, and 
> little programming knowledge require, we could easily harness 10,000+ 
> machines and a few dozen parallel machines.

A generalised distributed compute server would be powerful, a
participant would only have to compile the server and ensure it's
running.  It would compile and run cracking code only if signed by say
four principal participants.

The central coordinator service would want to send the following
instructions (every communique would be signed & checked):
	1) accept code & run
	2) report progress
	3) stop
	4) some management of keys, where perhaps any 3 principal
	   participant keys could revoke or add others for
	   evolutionary purposes.

Just an idea, probably old.

--
                                          <URL:http://www.comp.vuw.ac.nz/~matt>
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