RE: pcanywhere encryption

[Henry Sieff <hsieff () orthodon com>]

AFAIK, symmetric relies on the CryptoAPI to handle the encryption
routines, so maybe look into that. This is what they say:
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/pca.nsf/docid/1999022312571812&sr
c=w.

Henry

> -----Original Message-----
> From: hermit1 [mailto:hermits () mac com]
> Sent: Friday, January 26, 2001 11:08 AM
> To: firewall-wizards () nfr net
> Subject: [fw-wiz] pcanywhere encryption
>
>
> I wouldn't bother people with this, except Symantec tech 
> support claims to 
> know nothing about how their encryption works.  (Actually, 
> they claim their 
> product does not do encryption, it merely passes the data to 
> Microsoft 
> programs for encryption when appropriate.  Doesn't that make 
> you feel safe?)
>
> My organization is looking into ways of expanding remote access 
> capabilities.  One program we are trying is pcAnywhere from 
> Symantec.  The 
> documentation claims there are 4 levels of encryption available:
> 1.  None  -  Symantec recommends against using this
> 2.  pcAnywhere  -  Symantec also recommends against using this
> 3.  Symmetric key  -  recommended
> 4.  Public key  -   recommended as stronger than #3.  But as 
> near as I can 
> tell, this has the same level of encryption as #3 except you need a 
> certificate setup to use it.
>
> For symmetric keys, the manual states "pcAnywhere generates a 
> unique public 
> key and uses this key to encrypt and safely pass the 
> symmetric key used to 
> encrypt the session."
>
> Since there is no provision for selecting how the encrypted key gets

> decrypted by which client or server (there is no statement 
> about which end 
> of the connection generates the keys), the only conclusion I 
> can draw is 
> that the "unique public key" can be decrypted by ANY 
> pcAnywhere host or 
> client anywhere.  Well, I can draw another conclusion that 
> both the public 
> and private keys are sent at the same time, but that 
> procedure seems even 
> more stupid than my first conclusion.
>
> Can anyone help out by explaining what Symantec is actually 
> doing to set up 
> encrypted sessions?  Symantec can't explain it.
>
> Thanks,
> hermit1
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