Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site utcsri.UUCP Path: utzoo!utcsri!outer From: outer@utcsri.UUCP (Richard Outerbridge) Newsgroups: sci.crypt Subject: VC2000 "Update" Message-ID: <3806@utcsri.UUCP> Date: Tue, 16-Dec-86 23:37:07 EST Article-I.D.: utcsri.3806 Posted: Tue Dec 16 23:37:07 1986 Date-Received: Thu, 18-Dec-86 00:34:50 EST Distribution: net Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto Lines: 46 From the January 1987 issue of >Home Satellite TV<, "A "CHIP" That Unlocks Scrambling" by Bob Cooper, Jr. (pp. 51-55, 67): "The Videocipher has been broken through the U30 device found inside of the M/A Com descrambler and pictured on our front cover. It holds the key to a "quick decoding" fix discovered by many Videocipher hackers. The chip is re-programmed with user instructions which essentially unlock the descrambler for transmissions which were previously secure." The basic question still remains: Did they break DES or short-cut the keying? The chip on the front cover is an Intel P27128A-2 L5420254, whatever that is - EPROM? The article doesn't go into details. It hints that the flaw was key management ("The decision to transmit the keys, no matter how cleverly they might be disguised, would later turn out to be a poor decision.") but devotes a lot of space to talk about "murky" "DES protection statutes", whatever they are. It also claims that "...military and diplomatic messages encrypted with DES [are] being distributed all over the globe..." and echoes the silly M/A-Com treasonability warning. It would seem that the author doesn't know encryption or the law very well. At one point he quotes an otherwise unreferenced announcement by NSA: "Effective 1 January 1986 ... the U.S. government will no longer sanction the DES code for encryption systems. The DES code has become vulnerable to code breakers." Uhh, somehow I don't think that's quite their style... So: details to follow in the Caribbean. Cooper's Hotline (305-771-0575) says that attendees will receive sample DEScrambling chip sets as souvenirs! Humorous note - at one point the article observes: "It has also been something of a mystery why hundreds of individuals and groups, working to bust Videocipher, have been allowed to continue their efforts to bust the system without some form of federal intervention, or at the very least, a public warning from NSA, the FBI or the Department of Justice [with reference to the murky DES protection laws, I guess]. Perhaps, just perhaps, the whole Videocipher system has been a paper tiger from the beginning." Sounds like an excerpt from sci.crypt about the DES itself, eh? -- Richard Outerbridge(416) 961-4757 Payload Deliveries: N 43 39'36", W 79 23'42", Elev. 106.47m.