Security quotes of the week

[Posted June 2, 2011 by jake]

'apply jipsam algorithm'. This is a crypto module that isn't in mainline (and apparently doesn't exist outside North Korea). I bet it's good though. No backdoor master keys or anything similar.

-- Dave Jones roots through the Red Star Linux kernel changelog

I'm talking about instances where the government is relying on secret interpretations of what the law says without telling the public what those interpretations are, and the reliance on secret interpretations of the law is growing.

-- US Senator Ron Wyden in Wired on the "secret" Patriot Act

Security quotes of the week

Posted Jun 3, 2011 8:10 UTC (Fri) by tialaramex (subscriber, #21167) [Link] (2 responses)

I'm sure some crypto hobbyist is now dying to play with jipsam. In this modern era where even governments mostly use public standards for crypto it's interesting to see what some little island of crypto designers would make in Korea. Worst case, it's a familiar algorithm with the serial numbers filed off (and perhaps some deliberate pessimisation to help Korea's secret police).

Security quotes of the week

Posted Jun 3, 2011 8:25 UTC (Fri) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link] (1 responses)

That's the worst case? Not hardly. Worst case, it's a new algorithm (unreviewed by anyone else, thus seriously flawed) with a giant gaping backdoor for Dear Leader (making the serious flaw moot).

Security quotes of the week

Posted Jun 3, 2011 14:00 UTC (Fri) by tialaramex (subscriber, #21167) [Link]

But that's interesting!

Sorry, I meant worst case in the sense of "least interesting to analyse". I was taking it as read that no-one wants to use this unknown and probably tainted code to actually protect their data.

Security quotes of the week

Posted Jun 9, 2011 3:40 UTC (Thu) by Hausvib6 (guest, #70606) [Link]

They have found a new interesting way to use polygen: changelog generator.