PGP backdoor? (No, I'm not paranoid.)

I was recently speaking with a newly-made aquaintence, and we were 
discussing the merits of various encryption systems.  Now, I had heard
about all the people who claimed the reason versions later than 2.3 
wouldn't work with 2.3 was because of a backdoor for the government.  I 
personally thought they were being paranoid.  However, this guy tells me 
that he met Phil at defcon and phil told him that he co-operated with 
the government and gave them information that would enable them to crack 
key's for versions later than 2.3.   I don't know whether to believe him 
or not, as I said earlier he is not a long-time friend or anything, so he 
could just be lying to me.  If anyone has any information on this I would 
appreciate it.

---
"Man did not enter into society to become 
 worse than he was before, nor to have 
 fewer rights than he had before, but
 to have those rights better secured." 
             --- Thomas Paine 1791

>>My key is on the keyservers.

Mark Bainter writes:
> I was recently speaking with a newly-made aquaintence, and we were 
> discussing the merits of various encryption systems.  Now, I had heard
> about all the people who claimed the reason versions later than 2.3 
> wouldn't work with 2.3 was because of a backdoor for the government.  I 
> personally thought they were being paranoid.  However, this guy tells me 
> that he met Phil at defcon and phil told him that he co-operated with 
> the government and gave them information that would enable them to crack 
> key's for versions later than 2.3.   I don't know whether to believe him 
> or not, as I said earlier he is not a long-time friend or anything, so he 
> could just be lying to me.  If anyone has any information on this I would 
> appreciate it.

Your informant is taking extremely good drugs. You should find out who
his connection is should you want to get any.

Perry

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

[To: Mark Bainter <Mark@adspp.com>]
[cc: cypherpunks@toad.com]
[Subject: Re: PGP backdoor? (No, I'm not paranoid.) ]
[In-reply-to: Your message of Wed, 28 Feb 96 13:22:01 PST.]
             <3134C779.7C84@adspp.com> 

>I was recently speaking with a newly-made aquaintence, and we were 
>discussing the merits of various encryption systems.  Now, I had heard
>about all the people who claimed the reason versions later than 2.3 
>wouldn't work with 2.3 was because of a backdoor for the government.  I 
>personally thought they were being paranoid.  However, this guy tells me 
>that he met Phil at defcon and phil told him that he co-operated with 
>the government and gave them information that would enable them to crack 
>key's for versions later than 2.3.   I don't know whether to believe him 
>or not, as I said earlier he is not a long-time friend or anything, so he 
>could just be lying to me.  If anyone has any information on this I would 
>appreciate it.

Utter rubbish. You can look at the source code and easily convince
yourself that there is no backdoor. I have personally done this for the
key generation bit, and I know others who have done it for the
on-the-fly encryption. Also, 2.6ui (old version) was based on 2.3 and
interoperated fine -- it had no back doors.

What 2.6 *did* have was a built-in incompatibility with old versions, in
an attempt to make people upgrade to a version which got Phil out of
some patent-raleted hot water.

Chris McAuliffe <cmca@alpha.c2.org> (No, not that one.)

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