funsec mailing list archives
Re: elliptic-curve cryptography, are we ready?
From: Valdis.Kletnieks () vt edu
Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2007 10:31:45 -0400
On Wed, 15 Aug 2007 08:29:05 EDT, Marc Evans said:
I have been reading more and more lately about current PKI techniques nearing their end of life, and that elliptic-curve cryptography (ECC) is a likely replacement. Here is one such article on the topic: http://www.gcn.com/print/26_20/44801-1.html That said, I am not finding much in the area of public implementations and scrutiny. Can anyone shed any light on the subject?
Well, the MD5 hash is well into "stick a fork in it, it's done" status, and people should be migrating to SHA-n based code. The biggest problem with RSA is that we'll probably have to move from 1K-bit keys to 2K-bit keys sometime in the next decade. Elliptic curves are an interesting replacement mostly in some niches, most notably for smart cards or other places where power and/or computrons are a scarce resource. On laptops and higher, it doesn't buy you any additional security - the only reason to move in *that* direction is if your organization is deploying something to secure both smart-card class and laptop-class devices with one system. Phrased differently: The smart card can't handle RSA with 2048 bit keys, but *can* do an ECC with 256 bit keys, so we'll do it that way across the board.
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Current thread:
- elliptic-curve cryptography, are we ready? Marc Evans (Aug 15)
- Re: elliptic-curve cryptography, are we ready? Valdis . Kletnieks (Aug 15)
- Re: elliptic-curve cryptography, are we ready? coderman (Aug 15)
- Re: elliptic-curve cryptography, are we ready? Daniel Veditz (Aug 15)
- Re: elliptic-curve cryptography, are we ready? Blue Boar (Aug 16)
- Re: elliptic-curve cryptography, are we ready? coderman (Aug 16)
- Re: elliptic-curve cryptography, are we ready? coderman (Aug 15)
- Re: elliptic-curve cryptography, are we ready? Valdis . Kletnieks (Aug 15)