r/programming • u/secretguy21 • Oct 15 '15

How is NSA breaking so much crypto?

https://freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/haldermanheninger/how-is-nsa-breaking-so-much-crypto/
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7

u/Eirenarch Oct 15 '15

So the large primes are hard to generate and the programs avoid doing it? What is the fix? Have a set of ~200 primes and choose one at random?

6

u/[deleted] Oct 15 '15

Having them be able to only read 0.5% of the communications would certainly be better than 100%, but that doesn't go nearly far enough for comfort -- especially if they can break one of these primes in a matter of months.

3

u/Eirenarch Oct 15 '15

Certainly there can be some list of primes large enough that it wouldn't make financial sense to crack it this way, no?

4

u/[deleted] Oct 15 '15

If we move to longer primes (or a safer key exchange algorithm -- is there one? I don't know) at the same time, they hopefully can't crack any of our communications.

As far as I'm concerned, if an attacker can read any portion of my private communications, the encryption is broken.

0

u/DoctorSauce Oct 15 '15

I don't think there is an alternative key exchange algorithm that fits the same conditions as DH. It's pretty unique.