Crypto researchers abuzz over flaws

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Impracitcal?

What you wrote seems like complete common sense. A security breech should have no practical value because what is being substituted will likely be complete garbage.

Maybe I won't be able to change the bank balance in a secure file from $20 to $200,000,000 and get away with it because there's no possible way that the keys will match. But I can create a file of complete gibberish to replace your email.

You may think that it would be obvious to anybody reading it that when you send secure legal papers but they turn out to contain nothing but random characters, they have indeed been compromised. But there will always be somebody who insits that you meant to say "joadfhoiahdsln ohadsfh;a feh[afj kehi[hads lnkta" because the keys match and that proves it.

Remember, we live in a world where people try to detect counterfeit money by marking it with a pen, and even a poor counterfeit that passes the pen test will make it past the clerk. People will overlook the obvious whenever possible, and the government may even pass a law supporting it.

Don't be surprised if somebody insists that an unprocessable file is legitimate simply because it passes a test.

Posted by: wresnick   Posted on: 08/18/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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