Re: [gnukeyring-discuss] Keyring crypto

[Timm M. <har...@ru...>]

<>
> I dont really see any need to change the cipher. Maybe if you wanted
> to give users an option of selecting what cypher they like. 3DES is
> considered by many to be the most secure algorithm, but you might
> think of CAST for its speed while still being a 128bit cypher.

The advantage of using DES is that it has 20 years of cryptanylisis behind=
=20
it and brute-force is still the best way to attack it (sorta). The problem =
with it is that=20
the key size is too small, so brute-force is a viable meathod of attack. In=
 1993,=20
it was estimated that for $1 million (US), you could build a specialized co=
mputer=20
that could break any DES message in a few hours time.  That price is well w=
ithin=20
range of most governments and large buisnesses.  These days, with a little=
=20
programming knowledge, you could probably get a few freinds with some GHz=
=20
machines and break it in a few days or hours.

3DES nicely works around this problem. I think GNU Keyring should keep 3DES=
=20
because: 1) It works, and 2) we don't know how well newer ciphers (like AES=
)=20
are going to hold up after 20 years. As long as it is easy to change the al=
gorithm=20
should a breakthrough in cracking DES occur, there should be no problem in=
=20
continuing to use 3DES.