Strength in Complexity?

Hal Finney hal at finney.org
Wed Jul 2 10:09:05 EDT 2008


> "There are, of course, obstacles that must still be overcome by EKMI 
> proponents. For example, the proposed components are somewhat simple 
> by design, which concerns some encryption purists who prefer more 
> complex protocols, on the logic that they're more difficult to break 
> into."

Let me first say that from the discussion here I now get the impression
that this is how criticism of the EKMI spec is being characterized by its
supporters. Their critics are "encryption purists". I'm not sure what
that means but it sounds kind of like "people who believe in security
over simplicity".

An example where this concern might arise would be an overly simplistic
protocol that used AES in ECB mode - "simple by design", while the
"encryption purist" advocated GCM, "more difficult to break into" but
more complex.  Now, I'm sure EKMI is not doing things this way but it
is an example where "simple" would not look good to "encryption purists".

Hal Finney

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