On Wed, Nov 01, 2000 at 03:49:13PM -0800, Trent Piepho wrote: > > You can't compare a 56-bit RC5 key to a 56-bit RSA key, RC5 and > RSA are different algorithms and the key sizes aren't directly comparable. Here's a rough comparison table from AC: Symmetric Asymmetric 56 bits 384 bits 64 bits 512 bits 80 bits 768 bits 112 bits 1792 bits 128 bits 2304 bits > I'm sure that the 56-bit RSA key used by netrek could be cracked in minutes > with the hardware most people have at their disposal. % grep '^#define .*SIZE' mkkey.c #define SIZE 32 #define KEY_SIZE SIZE Netrek uses 32 * 8 = 256 bit RSA keys. This would probably compare to a 40 bit symmetric cipher key and is very crackable on modern desktops. -- Dave Ahn | ahn at vec.wfubmc.edu | Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Try to live your life so that when you die, you will rejoice and the world will cry. -1/2 jj^2