News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on The Million-Key Question: Investigating the Origins of RSA Public Keys. Parent comment

Re:The Million-Key Question: Investigating the Origins of RS... by tptacek on Wednesday August 10, 2016 @04:08PM (#12264455)
Could you be more specific about the "vulnerable numbers" we're talking about? The curve base point is a parameter for ECDSA as well.

I agree that any protocol that required you to generate curves or even base points on the fly would have similar concerns, but we generally don't use those kinds of protocols.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The Million-Key Question: Investigating the Origins of RS... by dc352 on Wednesday August 10, 2016 @05:40PM (#12264924)
My err - rubbish wording as I was thinking primes and talking curves.

Still, while I'm punching here a wee bit above my weight - I should read the 186-4 again - there are some tests to verify the strength of the prime. Is it enough for a similar classification? - I don't know...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The Million-Key Question: Investigating the Origins of RS... by tptacek on Wednesday August 10, 2016 @05:55PM (#12264995)
The prime field is part of the definition of the curve. Everyone interoperating on that curve shares it. It may have been generated weirdly --- the Curve25519 prime sure was! --- but all that tells you is what curve they're using.

It's true that the particular curves a system supports could be a kind of fingerprint, but that's a banal observation, equally true of the ciphers they support, or the compression algorithms.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The Million-Key Question: Investigating the Origins of RS... by dc352 on Wednesday August 10, 2016 @06:00PM (#12265032)
My last comment was towards key generation, not curves. Bug as I said, I am not in a position to say what the impact is.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The Million-Key Question: Investigating the Origins of RS... by tptacek on Wednesday August 10, 2016 @06:12PM (#12265093)
Sorry, I don't follow. Are you talking about key generation in ECC systems? There's no prime involved there.
[ Parent | on HN ]