Re: Is 1024-bit PGP key enough?

At 15:38 08/01/96 PDT, Jim Gillogly wrote:
>
>Somebody says:
>>> Is security provided by 1024-bit PGP key sufficient against most powerful
>>> computers that are available today? Say if smoe organization spent 10
>>> billions of dollars on a cracking machine, would it be possible to crack 
>>> the keys in reasonable time?
>
>Derek Atkins <warlord@MIT.EDU> responds with some useful and authoritative
>information -- thanks.
>
Also, remember that although the PGP key is 1024 bits, it generates a much
smaller IDEA key with 56 bits (I think... anyone?).  The 56 bit key is
vunerable to that $1 mil mystery machine that the NSA may or may not have.
 
                                                     G.C.G.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 | Geoffrey C. Grabow       |      Great people talk about ideas.       |
 | Oyster Bay, New York     |     Average people talk about things.     |
 | gcg@pb.net               |      Small people talk about people.      |
 |----------------------------------------------------------------------|
 |     PGP 2.6.2 public key available at http://www.pb.net/~wizard      | 
 |          and on a plethora of key servers around the world.          |
 |----------------------------------------------------------------------|
 | That which does not kill us, makes us stranger.   - Trevor Goodchild |
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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On Thu, 1 Aug 1996, Geoffrey C. Grabow wrote:

> Also, remember that although the PGP key is 1024 bits, it generates a much
> smaller IDEA key with 56 bits (I think... anyone?).  The 56 bit key is
> vunerable to that $1 mil mystery machine that the NSA may or may not have.

Nope.  The IDEA key is 128 bits long and is probably much harder to break than
a 3000-bit RSA modulus.  Of course, the comparison is really useless, since
nobody knows how advanced the NSA's factoring capabilities are.

- -- Mark

PGP encrypted mail prefered
Key fingerprint = d61734f2800486ae6f79bfeb70f95348
http://www.voicenet.com/~markm/  


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