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Thread: SHA Project ... !!!

  1. #21
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    NJ (USA)
    Posts
    36
    The Secure Hash Algorithm SHA-1 was long suspected of being weak, and was proven so in 2005 when Chinese researchers found a way to break it with about 2000 times less effort than brute force. So what good does it do to search for collisions when it is already known to be weak?

    Smart security people have already switched to better hash algorithms. So the only use I can think of for finding SHA-1 collisions is to attack older systems that still use SHA-1. Or to attack old messages that have been archived.

    Hash algorithms are generally used to prevent (undetected) modification of messages, as compared to encryption preventing (unauthorized) reading of messages. If it takes 5 or 20 years to decrypt a message, chances are good that the message is no longer secret by then. But if hashing authenticates some historical evidence, and breaking the hash function provides a way to tamper with the evidence, that could be bad, I think, because there is no time limit in most cases.

    In any case, I would not help a foreign country with a cryptographic research project. There might be some exceptions where I knew enough about what they were doing, but for people with no cryptographic expertise, I would advise against it.


  2. #22
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    South Carolina, USA
    Posts
    418
    Quote Originally Posted by Jim_Clark View Post
    In any case, I would not help a foreign country with a cryptographic research project. There might be some exceptions where I knew enough about what they were doing, but for people with no cryptographic expertise, I would advise against it.


    I agree 100%

  3. #23
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    Illinois
    Posts
    3
    My new Phenom 9500 is allowing me to crunch like 200 units a day o.o

    I kinda have to agree that the project is a little scary, but its great for stressing my new chip heh.
    Last edited by Zoness; 02-17-2008 at 11:18 PM.

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