Merkle Signature Scheme is the most secure signature scheme possible for general-purpose use

[Perry E. Metzger]

On Sat, 4 Sep 2010 10:45:48 +1000 (EST) Dave Horsfall
<dave at horsfall.org> wrote:
> Funny you should mention that.  Back in the late 70s, a work
> colleague suggested that the Unix crypt() function was a ring (we
> both had mathematical backgrounds), which gave me the idea of
> repeatedly encrypting the encrypted root password.

You mean a group.

It is known that DES is not a group, but that result comes from a
different use of the algorithm than the somewhat way DES is invoked
in the crypt(3) algorithm, and I don't know if that modifies the
result. None the less, I suspect it would be surprising if it turned
out to be a group even in the use in crypt(3).

Perry
-- 
Perry E. Metzger		perry at piermont.com

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