[Gllug] Distribution Pecking Order So far

[Alex Hudson]

On Thursday 25 October 2001 2:27 pm, you wrote:
> > I would be surprised if they had broken rc4(?) encryption.
>
> *blink*
>
> *blink again*  :-)  Where did that come from?
>
> They aren't encrypted, they're password protected.  The file's left
> entirely intact, with a flag set in the document 

Really... I suppose that's why all those Word/Excel 97/2k crackers run 
dictionary attacks on the file... much more efficient than ignoring a flag.

> Furthermore, how do you propose
> Microsoft exported RC4 from the US to the entire world?

I suspect they probably wrote the software, pressed it to CD-ROM, put it in a 
box, and sent it to shops and warehouses. In much the same way as exporting 
SSL, except without the download bit. But I may be wrong :P

> On a separate point, that's an information theory issue.  While I like
> stream ciphers - and RC4 - a lot, I'm don't imagine that "we'd have
> heard about it by now" if they[1] were broken by rand($organisation).

I can't think of a major cipher/system crack that wasn't known widely (within 
the community) for a long time after it occured. If you crack something, you 
make use of it (it's an advantage, after all). If you make use of it, people 
will find you out. And if Sun _had_ broken Excel 97/2k encryption (for 
example), I really _do_ think we would have heard about it....  Sun aren't 
going to keep marketable anti-Microsoft bluster under their caps...

Cheers,
					Alex.


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