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