RSA vs DSA/ElGamal

[John W. Moore III]

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Zach Himsel wrote:
> My private key was recently compromised (Which sucks, I know). I was in
> the process of generating a new keypair when I realized "Why do I use
> RSA? What's the difference". Hence my question :)
> 
> If I *do* use DSA/ElGamal, what bitrate should I use? I know there are
> FAQs and documentations that say to use a certain bitrate, but I would
> like to know the reason behind that...

My personal preference is for an RSA signing Key with an ElGamal
encryption sub-Key.  My reasons are twofold:

RSA Keys have *all* the hash functions available to them.  Nothing
truncated.  RSA Keys are more difficult to 'forge' signatures due to the
built in "firewall", for lack of a better word.  Much has been written
on PGP-Basics regarding this ability within RSA Keys.  Robert J. Hansen
also explains this very well in his 'Un-Official PGP FAQ' which is
accessible from my Homepage.

I use an ElGamal encryption sub-Key solely because I feel that
bit-for-bit, ElGamal is the stronger.  Others can & may differ.

The way to avail yourself of all the Options in Key Generation is simply
to add the single word _expert_ to your gpg.conf File.  This single, 1
word line in gpg.conf will also allow you to accomplish a lot of silly
things.  For instance, absurdly large Keys may be generated.

If by 'bitrate' (bit rate?) you are referring to the hash function, you
are limited to a 160 bit Hash and I'd suggest RIPEMD160.  If you are
using a Compiled version of 1.4.4 and have decided to generate a DSA2
Key, then I'd specify SHA256 to obtain security & maximum verification
compatibility.

JOHN ;)
Timestamp: Thursday 08 Jun 2006, 23:43  --400 (Eastern Daylight Time)
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