Fun_People Archive
30 Sep
Is the DES dead?

Date: Thu, 30 Sep 93 00:33:32 PDT
To: Fun_People
Subject: Is the DES dead?

 From: Philip Zimmermann <prz@columbine.cgd.ucar.EDU>

DES Key Search Paper

Michael Weiner presented a paper at Crypto93 that describes a fast DES key
search engine that uses a special inside-out DES chip that he designed.
This chip takes a single plaintext/ciphertext pair and quickly tries DES
keys until it finds one that produces the given ciphertext from the given
plaintext.  Weiner can get these chips made for $10.50 each in quantity,
and can build a special machine with 57000 of these chips for $1 million.
This machine can exhaust the DES key space in 7 hours, finding a key in 3.5
hours on the average.  He works for Bell Northern Research in Ottawa, and
says they have not actually built this machine, but he has the chip fully
designed and ready for fabrication.

© 1993 Peter Langston