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FreeBSD 4.1.1 Includes RSA

Posted by Hemos on from the lotsa-submissions-on-this-one dept.

Eladio McCormick writes: "Yeah, I know point releases are not by themselves huge news, but FreeBSD 4.1.1-RELEASE represents a major event, in that the base distribution now includes RSA. Info on the release is online." We've had a number of submissions about this one -- good to see the patent come off, and encryption working its way into more things.

4 of 91 comments (clear)

  1. Way to Promote Innovation, Guys! by Greyfox · · Score: 5
    RSA's been patented for 17 years now. Look at the number of products that use it, and the ways it's used in those products.

    This time next year, look at the number of products that appeared since the patent expired, and the ways they use it.

    Where do you see the innovation happening?

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    1. Re:Way to Promote Innovation, Guys! by sjames · · Score: 5

      The innovation happened when RSA was developed. Maybe, had they not gotten a patent, RSA would have never publicized their algorithm. Maybe instead they would have kept it as a trade secret, releasing only closed-source binary implementations of it.

      RSA was published before a patent was granted (And before an algorythm could be patented at all, indicating that the work was done under the belief that it could NEVER be patented), and was developed with public funds. The patent was an afterthought. The patent system encouraged nothing but price gouging.

  2. FreeS/WAN in Linux? by IGnatius+T+Foobar · · Score: 4

    This isn't directly related to RSA, but it got me thinking: now that strong crypto isn't considered a 'munition' anymore, it'd really be a good time to start including the IPSEC hooks for FreeS/WAN in the stock Linux kernel. FreeS/WAN is a great package, and it enables really good VPN's to be done on a shoestring. Unfortunately, it requires a kernel patch. I'd like to see the relevant IPSEC hooks in the stock kernel now.
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  3. What "RSA in the base system" really means... by reg · · Score: 4

    This is not something "new" for FreeBSD. For some time the base system has included RSA based encryption (for OpenSSH). What is new is that there is now only one distribution, not a USA version and an International version.

    What occurred in the past was that the RSA code could come from two sources - a USA patented version, which required a licence for commercial use, and an international free version (which was also cleaner and faster). If you were a USA resident you were required to install the librsa port to obtain RSA based encryption.

    Since the changes in the patent, there is now no need for the RSA Data Security library, and so the international library is used in all cases, and we now longer have to have two seperate distributions, and all of the Makefile goop to handle having two slightly different libs for USA/non USA.

    It also means that RSA can be used commercially without a licence.

    Regards,
    -Jeremy (reg@FreeBSD.org)