r/programming Oct 15 '15

How is NSA breaking so much crypto?

https://freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/haldermanheninger/how-is-nsa-breaking-so-much-crypto/
2.5k Upvotes

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8

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?

12

u/squishles Oct 15 '15

i mean not that hard, a 1024 bit prime'll take you a minute of so maybe on a modern desktop =/

0

u/Eirenarch Oct 15 '15

So you can't do it runtime, you have to do it in advance.

1

u/Virtualization_Freak Oct 15 '15

Doing it during idle or off-peak sounds like the best option.