Libcrypt examples?

[Ronald F. Guilmette]

In message <54409469.9090504 at sixdemonbag.org>, 
"Robert J. Hansen" <rjh at sixdemonbag.org> wrote:

>> I just want to keep out those with ernest, but
>> not too intensely motivated curiosity.
>
>Crypto comes in only two varieties: the kinds that will keep secrets
>safe against a motivated thirteen-year-old, and the kinds that will keep
>secrets safe against space aliens from Zarbnulax.[*]
>
>It's kind of the nature of this list to believe there's no point in the
>former and to obsess over the latter

Yea, I'm starting to get that.

> -- when neither dismissal nor
>obsession is actually a very good policy.  I'm not going to dismiss the
>former kind of crypto: my only lookout is making sure that you're fully
>appraised of the risks.  Which it seems like you are, so go with God and
>happy hacking.  :)

Thank you sir.

>[*] "the space aliens from Zarbnulax" is my usual shorthand for "an
>adversary with knowledge of mathematics and science far beyond ours,

Not to disagree with your way of categorizing threat levels, but won't
those Zarbnulaxians have quantum computers which render all of our
current crypto stuff impotent?

I think you may want to add a middle category to your threat taxonomy:

1)  Motivated thirteen year olds.
2)  The NSA.
3)  Space aliens from Zarbnulax.

I suspect that most here would be satisfied with provably strong defenses
against 1 and 2.  (And, as I've mentioned, for my own rather specialzed
project at the moment, a decent defense against only category 1 will
be sufficient.)


Regards,
rfg