Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10 beta 3/9/83; site aat.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!duke!mcnc!...@aat.UUCP
From: m...@aat.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.crypt
Subject: Public Key Crypto-Systems
Message-ID: <195@aat.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 30-Nov-83 11:12:28 EST
Article-I.D.: aat.195
Posted: Wed Nov 30 11:12:28 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 2-Dec-83 05:51:38 EST
Organization: Ann Arbor Terminals
Lines: 20
Could someone give me a reference (or even better, *code*, or an
algorithm description) for a public-key encryption system. To the
best of my knowledge, these systems are based on the distribution
of very large pseudo-prime numbers, i.e. large numbers with
exactly two large prime factors. The psuedo-prime can be distributed
in a "phonebook", but the factors are kept secret. The sender
encrypts the outgoing message using the pseudo-prime, but the factors
are required to decode it. It has a side benefit of unforgeably
identifying the sender of any given message. I am interested in
implementing one such system for UNIX.
The National Security Agency has been trying to supress scholarly
discussion on this topic, reportedly because this is an encryption
system that even they do not have the resources to break (unlike DES).
[This from the recent book, "The Puzzle Palace"].
S. McGeady
cbosg!cbosgd!aat!mcg
tektronix!psu-cs!aat!mcg
Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site umcp-cs.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!seismo!rlgvax!cvl!umcp-cs!mark
From: m...@umcp-cs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.crypt
Subject: Re: Public Key Crypto-Systems
Message-ID: <4201@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 3-Dec-83 11:40:19 EST
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.4201
Posted: Sat Dec 3 11:40:19 1983
Date-Received: Tue, 6-Dec-83 23:34:05 EST
References: <195@aat.UUCP>
Organization: Univ. of Maryland, Computer Science Dept.
Lines: 14
Berkeley Unix already has a public key encryption system used
to send secret mail. It is called xsend and xget, and has been
around for several years at least. (I don't know if
it originated at Bell or not--all I know it is here on our vax.)
Secret mail to each person is encrypted with their public key and
kept in a spool directory, but then can of course only be read
by that person themselves, who is the only holder of the private key.
--
spoken: mark weiser
UUCP: {seismo,allegra,brl-bmd}!umcp-cs!mark
CSNet: mark@umcp-cs
ARPA: mark.umcp-cs@CSNet-Relay
Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site allegra.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!eagle!allegra!don
From: d...@allegra.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.crypt,net.unix-wizards
Subject: secretmail and proper credit
Message-ID: <2068@allegra.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 5-Dec-83 15:45:04 EST
Article-I.D.: allegra.2068
Posted: Mon Dec 5 15:45:04 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 7-Dec-83 00:10:15 EST
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
Lines: 14
To answer the question about secretmail, xsend and xget was based on a
knapsack scheme that has since been broken. It was written at Bell
Labs by Peter Weinberger.
Unfortunately, the Berkeley manual contains "AUTHOR" entries only for
things hacked at Berkeley which is unfortunate since BTL and a number
of universities made fundamental contributions (U. of Sydney and U. of
Toronto in particular).
For example, relatively uninteresting programs like vfontinfo and
vgrind are proudly AUTHOR'ed. The vtroff program itself was written at
Toronto by Mark Tilson, but his name has even been removed from the
source listing! (It was there in an V6 version I used in grad school)
Additional work on vtroff was done at the University of Purdue.
Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site sdcsvax.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!ittvax!dcdwest!sdcsvax!davidson
From: david...@sdcsvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.crypt,net.unix-wizards
Subject: Re: secretmail and proper credit
Message-ID: <69@sdcsvax.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 6-Dec-83 18:38:29 EST
Article-I.D.: sdcsvax.69
Posted: Tue Dec 6 18:38:29 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 9-Dec-83 02:09:23 EST
References: <2068@allegra.UUCP>
Organization: EECS Dept., U.C. San Diego
Lines: 11
In addition to being considered breakable, I understand that the method used
for UNIX secretmail will not not support digital signatures. Does anyone
know of a replacement for secretmail without these deficiencies, either
available now, or in the offing?
I'm glad someone mentioned the elimination of authors from the Berkeley
UNIX manual. I've never heard anyone mention this except to complain
about it. Is anyone on the Berkeley UNIX project listening? (They might
also restore the dates of when each document was last modified.)
-Greg
Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!henry
From: he...@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: net.crypt,net.unix-wizards
Subject: Re: secretmail and proper credit
Message-ID: <3407@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 7-Dec-83 16:18:31 EST
Article-I.D.: utzoo.3407
Posted: Wed Dec 7 16:18:31 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 7-Dec-83 16:18:31 EST
References: <2068@allegra.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 10
allegra!don points out that Mike Tilson's name was removed from vtroff
(or rather, some of its constituent pieces) at Berkeley. This is even
more dubious than it sounds, because Berkeley almost certainly got that
software under the standard U of T distribution agreement, which quite
explicitly requires that proper credit be given. (It *also* requires
that the stuff not be distributed without U of T's permission, although
this may perhaps have been granted quietly.)
--
Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry
Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!henry
From: he...@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards
Subject: Re: secretmail and proper credit
Message-ID: <3418@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 16-Dec-83 17:28:27 EST
Article-I.D.: utzoo.3418
Posted: Fri Dec 16 17:28:27 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 16-Dec-83 17:28:27 EST
References: <2068@allegra.UUCP>, <3407@utzoo.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 22
A small correction to a previous posting: in my reply to allegra!don's
comments about proper credit for 4.xBSD software, I had followed his
attribution of vcat (the guts of vtroff) to Mike Tilson. This wasn't
quite correct. I was around U of T at the time but never had a clear
idea of exactly who had done what on vcat, and the passage of time
didn't help. The proper credits for vcat are roughly as follows:
Bill Reeves most of vcat, and the font editor
Tom Duff the inner loop of vcat, in pdp11 assembler
Rob Pike the (unreleased) precursor to vcat (called vd)
Mike Tilson miscellaneous optimizations
The distributed source for vcat had Reeves, Pike, Tilson in the heading,
and Duff in the lone .s file. My thanks to Rob Pike for refreshing my
memory on this.
Is anybody from Berkeley listening? Could you perhaps dig out the
U of T licence you signed years ago and re-read the part about being
required to give proper credit?
--
Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry