Re: cryptoapi-2.4.7.0: IV_MODE_SECTOR confusion

[Kingdome@t-online.de (markus)]

On Friday 07 September 2001 18:51, Jari Ruusu wrote:
> Rob McGee wrote:
> > I'm no cryptographer nor mathematician, but ISTM that having only one
> > algorithm potentially helps an attacker, because there's only that one
> > to contend with. You can look at the system and see which project is in
> > use, and if it's Loop-AES you know with high probability that any large
> > incomprehensible file could be an AES loop container. But if its Crypto
> > API, you have to consider all the alternatives too. And in the crypto
> > world you have to think about the future: algorithms might be cracked,
> > computing power might make brute force attacks feasible.
>
> Encryption type is almost always specified in /etc/fstab options, so even
> when multiple algorithms are used, an attacker would know the algorithm
> anyway. Security comes from keeping the _key_ secret (but you knew that).

Real cryptographical security is when when it isnīt possible to crack even if 
You know the encrytion algortihm (how the safe works) and the cipher text 
(loop file).
So, there is nothing wrong with it - and everything else is just a version of 
hiding information and not part of (the core of) cryptography.

Sincerely,
Markus Beck

Linux-crypto:  cryptography in and on the Linux system
Archive:       http://mail.nl.linux.org/linux-crypto/