Discussion of SIGABA, FPGA query, automated cipher construction, &c.

[Travis H.]

First, I found this interesting site by John Savard which discusses
the various crypto designs since... well, since pencil and paper
systems.  Notable is the detailed discussion of the declassified
SIGABA machine:
http://www.quadibloc.com/crypto/jscrypt.htm

Next, can anyone point me in the direction of any web references on
using FPGAs to implement cryptographic (or other) algorithms?  I would
like the speed of hardware, but feel that it is necessary to amend the
algorithms as the state of the art advances.  I've also wanted to do
some low-level hardware interfacing.

Have there been any attempts to construct ciphers based on a key or
random number?  It would be interesting to see a family of ciphers
from which one is chosen periodically, in addition to re-keying.  I
suppose that one could permute S-tables in Feistel-type ciphers fairly
easily (a la traditional Unix crypt() salt), but have there been any
more general efforts, perhaps using virtual machines or lisp?  I do
realize that an algorithm is already parameterized by the key, but the
general structure remains the same.

I found this amazing paper on sandboxing x86 code (software-based
fault isolation),
and due to some engineering the overhead is pretty minimal (20% on SPECint2000):
http://www.usenix.org/events/sec06/tech/mccamant.html

Using a method like this between two systems with the same instruction
set, the crypto protocol initiator could even send the algorithm they
want to use to encrypt, compress, or otherwise transform the rest of
the session, and the recipient could ostensibly execute it safely, and
vice-versa.

If any of you are die-hard assembly or algorithm mavens, this book
might interest you:
http://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Delight-Henry-Warren-Jr/dp/0201914654
-- 
Enhance your calm, fellow citizen; it's just ones and zeroes.
Unix "guru" for rent or hire -><- http://www.lightconsulting.com/~travis/
GPG fingerprint: 9D3F 395A DAC5 5CCC 9066  151D 0A6B 4098 0C55 1484

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