Re: Brin on privacy

Mark Grant (mark@unicorn.com)
Wed, 25 Dec 1996 00:35:57 +0000


On Mon, 23 Dec 1996, James Rogers wrote:

> In the case of
> RC4, the total number of possible states is 10^1700. If no cycles or
> patterns are found, then cracking this cypher is much more formidable than
> the usual off-the-shelf symmetric cyphers like IDEA and DES.

Of course that's only true if you use a 4800-bit key. A 40-bit key will
only give you 2^40 (around 10^13) possible outputs even if the theoretical
maximum is 10^1700.

Mark

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