🚀 go-pugleaf

Writes butzerd@columbia.eng.ohio-state.edu (Dane C. Butzer):
 
 > 1) A crypto system without keys is useless (I agree, but did 
 > his original post say this?  
 
 I didn't say that NuCrypt used keys, or that it didn't use keys.
 At the time, I just said that the program did not create any 
 output other than the ciphertext. Some people jumped to 
 conclusions, a very bad trait for a cryptanalyst. 
 
 (Now, as of today, I am saying that NuCrypt uses embedded 2048-bit 
 shifting keys.)
 
 
 > This (no key == no value) seems blantantly obvious, and somebody 
 > else [forget who] questioned this point also... Response, Erik?)
 
 Like all obvious things, this one probably has wrong facets as well. 
 The value of a key is that it can be kept secure. But a conventional 
 key is not the only thing that can be kept confidential or secure.  
 By the same token, anything can be stolen. Including a key.  
 So what's the big deal in any case? 
 
 
 > 2) Nobody will look at a challenge unless the encryption method 
 > is fully disclosed first.  Now here's where I have a dilema...
 
 (We don't have a dilemma at all. We just don't want to disclose it.)
  
 > Lets say I invent some new encryption scheme (call it Rcrypt - for 
 > Really crypt) and it is Honest to God unbreakable 
 
 Hold it for a second.  We don't *know* that our NuCrypt method is 
 "really unbreakable", whatever that means in theory and in practice. 
 If we did, we wouldn't need to make the challenge.  But we do think 
 it's extremely good and hard to break. I said "unbreakable" earlier 
 and was being a bit facetious. Still, until somebody breaks it, it 
 remains "unbroken" in practice, eh? 
 
 
 > I do have an idea for a solution.  How's this sound:
 >
 > 1) Run a challenge with a large amount of known plaintext and 
 > ciphertext (like 50K to 100K), a nice reward ($500?), but do not 
 > publish the encryption method.  Let this test run 3 months.  The 
 
 Sure, if that's what is wanted. I just think that even 50 kB is
 too large to post here, certainly 100 kB - do you really need 50 K? 
 Some people have asked for megabyte-long files... OK, if that's 
 what's needed, that's fine with us... will have to get somebody to 
 ftp the stuff to some site... don't have ftp at this system...   
 Billions of bytes... billions of bytes... jeeez! 
 However, please note that the reward we offered would have been 
 comparable to what you're proposing. 
 
 
 > Also offer the working object code to anybody in the US 
 > that wants it ...
 
 This we are not planning to do.
 

--- Maximus 2.00