Jochen Hoenicke wrote: > 2006/11/22, Ralph Alvy <ralph at ralphalvy.com>: >> I use Keyring and Note Studio for my encrypted notes that have critical >> data. Note Studio is supposed to have quite strong encryption: >> >> "Note Studio uses a form of encryption called 3-Way Encryption. This is >> a very secure encryption. There is no known, practical way to crack this >> encryption. A mathematical method of breaking 3-way encryption has been >> proposed, but this method required a bank of super computers and a long >> time (years)." >> >> I've always wondered how strong Keyring encryption is. Anyone know? > > As a co-author of Keyring I know it, of course. The details are on the homepage > http://gnukeyring.sf.net/crypto.html > > In short, keyring-1.2.3 uses triple des (to be more exact 2-TDES in > ECB mode). It has a key length of 112-bits. According to wikipedia > there are "certain chosen-plaintext or known-plaintext attacks and > thus it is officially designated to have only 80-bits of security". It > is probably not feasible, as it requires too much known-plaintext, > though. > > 3-way has 96-bits key-length. There is a related key cryptanalysis, > but this is probably not feasible for this application. > > Both methods cannot be broken even by the current computing power > (e.g. distributed.net) within the next decade (even considering > Moore's Law). > > As always, it is not as simple as this. You also have to consider how > the encryption key is generated from password, which encryption mode > you use (block ciphers always have ECB,CBC,OFB and CFB modes), and how > the IV is generated. Also the security provided by the encryption > cannot be better than your password. Furthermore, data may be leaked > by operating system or by a trojan application, there are side-channel > attacks, e.g. if you use keyring very much, some characters may be > permanently scratched into the Graffiti area. > > The keyring-2.0 pre-release has stronger encryption using full 3-TDES > or AES with 128-256 bits (at user's choice) and better encryption key > generation. However, this release is not supported by jpilot, yet. Very helpful. The chart on that web page was even more helpful.
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