From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([69.77.167.62] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1KByFL-0008GJ-Lf for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:39:11 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 3FEDDE0497; Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:39:10 +0000 (UTC) Received: from py-out-1112.google.com (py-out-1112.google.com [64.233.166.183]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2B083E0497 for ; Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:39:10 +0000 (UTC) Received: by py-out-1112.google.com with SMTP id w53so66841pyg.25 for ; Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:39:05 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:from:to:subject:date :user-agent:references:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type :content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:message-id; bh=UsKqDqAxFMV2grCKdm4NXeExZMCQAjyLX03i/u/aEew=; b=DonEV8f5hq3EkNRa0YkEQeqehaIiiW2r5qqq4YnAmCskE35Yh1HrW5OtII/rYztfUb ZURbNYSlXE9jVax8yhQjFJx5wCkBq+7WCNOl2bj6319NbltFCYrQa28v5NY0Kiuj+6ow dXYMEeuW6wmFSp2h+WsSvaw7pDMb4zK8tEZuw= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=from:to:subject:date:user-agent:references:in-reply-to:mime-version :content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition :message-id; b=RtfcXZET4HDkY+gF64ZLLgG5mJYZ0wVJjLZlsVBG1OYxXq2sKFV8RhliuzB85e5Fvk 8gfSjD+Jsa7HV6+cQkEkSsc9hZLVrvyczgLKpGn6yD5FWA6+BWvLe67kOlksa97ZRl8v nk/ClvjBxlf1UzJkXAqtDWMXxREZZtTcVWiq0= Received: by 10.114.159.6 with SMTP id h6mr601853wae.65.1214512745037; Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:39:05 -0700 (PDT) Received: from ?10.0.0.3? ( [41.243.240.172]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id 4sm431982yxq.8.2008.06.26.13.39.03 (version=SSLv3 cipher=RC4-MD5); Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:39:04 -0700 (PDT) From: Alan McKinnon To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] My last words on cryptology and cryptography. Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2008 22:39:42 +0200 User-Agent: KMail/1.9.9 References: <4861AB64.9000709@comcast.net> <200806261054.43706.alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> <200806262214.30158.basti.wiesner@gmx.net> In-Reply-To: <200806262214.30158.basti.wiesner@gmx.net> Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200806262239.42820.alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> X-Archives-Salt: 85200406-9f57-42eb-94fa-2b680fa58e30 X-Archives-Hash: 30a5265b9ee602db4310251d8efe52fe On Thursday 26 June 2008, Sebastian Wiesner wrote: > Alan McKinnon at Thursday 26 June 2008, > 10:54:43 > > > The calculation is quite simple - measure how quickly a specific > > computer can match keys. Divide this into the size of the keyspace. > > The average time to brute force a key is half that value. AFAIK > > this still averages out at enormous numbers of years, even at > > insane calculation rates like what RoadRunner can achieve. > > According to Wikipedia RoadRunner is designed for 1.7 petaflops in > peak. Assuming for the sake of simplicity, that decryption can be > performed within a single flop: > > (2^256) / (1.7 * 10^15) / 2 ~= 3.5 * 10^61 > > In years: > > 3.5 * 10^61 / 3600 / 24 / 356 ~= 10^54 > > Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems impossible to me, to reduce > this get the required amount somewhere near to the life time of a > human being ;) Even with your ultra-liberal assumptions, it still comes out to: 1000000000000000000000000000000000000 times longer than the entire universe is believed to have existed thus far (14 billion years). That is an unbelievable stupendously long period of time. Yeah, I'd agree that brute force is utterly unfeasible as a vector of attack. Not even the almighty NSA could ever pull that one off as there simply aren't enough atoms in the universe to make a supercomputer big enough. Numbers don't lie. -- Alan McKinnon alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com -- gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org mailing list