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Article #2456

Real question re DES vs IDEA cipher

#2456
From: Michael T. Palmer
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1992 16:39
26 lines
1572 bytes
I just read in the RIPEM FAQ that DES uses a key length that "should be
reasonably safe against an opponent smaller than a large corporation or
government agency."

Ack.

I don't get warm fuzzy feelings from this statement.  So...

What size key does IDEA use?  Is the length sufficient to stand up against
brute force attacks?  I mean, if you can brute force it then why bother
encrypting the session key with RSA (as in PGP and RIPEM)?  Nobody has to
worry about the public key stuff, they can just go right after the plain
text.

Since I've seen here that IDEA might end up in an update of RIPEM, I was
just wondering if it offered more security than DES (in CBC mode).  Please,
forgo the legal asides concerning the algorithms and respective export or
patent laws.  I'm just interested in what key sizes the different ciphers
use.

Thanks.

-- 
Michael T. Palmer, M/S 152, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA 23681
Voice: 804-864-2044,   FAX: 804-864-7793,   Email: m.t.palmer@larc.nasa.gov
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From: palmer@icat.larc.nasa.gov (Michael T. Palmer)
Newsgroups: sci.crypt
Subject: Real question re DES vs IDEA cipher
Date: 24 Dec 1992 16:39:29 GMT
Organization: NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA  USA
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