New NSA-Approved Encryption Standard May Contain Backdoor

Hugh Pickens writes "Bruce Schneier has a story on Wired about the new official standard for random-number generators the NIST released this year that will likely be followed by software and hardware developers around the world. There are four different approved techniques (pdf), called DRBGs, or 'Deterministic Random Bit Generators' based on existing cryptographic primitives. One is based on hash functions, one on HMAC, one on block ciphers and one on elliptic curves. The generator based on elliptic curves called Dual_EC_DRBG has been championed by the NSA and contains a weakness that can only be described as a backdoor. In a presentation at the CRYPTO 2007 conference (pdf) in August, Dan Shumow and Niels Ferguson showed that there are constants in the standard used to define the algorithm's elliptic curve that have a relationship with a second, secret set of numbers that can act as a kind of skeleton key. If you know the secret numbers, you can completely break any instantiation of Dual_EC_DRBG."

Comments

Goatse links?

[corifornia2]

Anyone got some goatse links as the backdoor? Come on. Someone?

So, what's the sekret set of numbers?

[AragornSonOfArathorn]

I want to rob your bank. And your bank's bank. From the comfort of my bathroom.

javascript and AC

[Anonymous Coward]

Anybody likes the "new comment interface"? It sucks. It seems that if you are an AC and you have disabled javascript (eliminates all google ads!), you have to click EVERY TIME to bring up the old interface. Fucking assholes or what?

Re:I can't be the only one:

[recursiv]

Hey may be no Niels Ferguson, but Dan Shumow is pretty good too. I mean, I once spray painted his ass.