Subject: Re: Preparing a new draft.../ PGP versions 5 and later / ciphertext-format query.....

From: Joe Tag <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2001 13:23:44 -0400

I believe that PGP 5.0/5.0i is the MINIMUM BASIC version of the software
that
end-users should use.  That version is available for IBM PC-DOS/MS-DOS,
and 
supports CAST/Diffie-Hellman, as well as IDEA/RSA algorithms and
protocols. 

BTW: Why was Radix-64 developed; and what are the problems of having
ciphertext
output as a hexadecimal file? 

/signed/ Joe Tag,Jr. 

On 21 Aug 2001 17:54:28 +0200 Florian Weimer
<[email-masked]> writes:
> 
> Jon Callas <[email-masked]> writes:
> 
> > I agree with you that in a perfect world we'd make it mandatory, 
> but people
> > would howl if we did. If we want to move to that as a goal, step 
> one is to
> > deprecate 2.6.
> 
> You could at least mark it 'obsolescent'. ;-)
> 
> -- 
> Florian Weimer                           
> [email-masked]
> University of Stuttgart           http://cert.uni-stuttgart.de/
> RUS-CERT                          +49-711-685-5973/fax 
> +49-711-685-5898
> 

http://www.kean.edu/~jtag

-----/signed/ Joe Tag,Jr.; Elizabeth, New Jersey, USA -----
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---

From: Werner Koch <[email-masked]>
Date: 21 Aug 2001 19:53:54 +0200

> I believe that PGP 5.0/5.0i is the MINIMUM BASIC version of the software

With the drawback that it far away from OpenPGP compliant and has a
lot of security issues.

> output as a hexadecimal file? 

Because it produces only an 33% overhead compared to the 100% overhead
of plain hexdigits.

We need to save some bandwidth so that we can use more funny mail
headers :-)

Ciao,

  Werner

-- 
Werner Koch        Omnis enim res, quae dando non deficit, dum habetur
g10 Code GmbH      et non datur, nondum habetur, quomodo habenda est.
Privacy Solutions                                        -- Augustinus

---

From: Florian Weimer <[email-masked]>
Date: 22 Aug 2001 18:29:23 +0200

Joe Tag <[email-masked]> writes:

> I believe that PGP 5.0/5.0i is the MINIMUM BASIC version of the
> software that end-users should use.  That version is available for
> IBM PC-DOS/MS-DOS, and supports CAST/Diffie-Hellman, as well as
> IDEA/RSA algorithms and protocols.

PGP 5 has security-related problems and is not compatible with OpenPGP
either.

> ciphertext output as a hexadecimal file?

Hexadecimal streams encode 4 bits per character, while Radix-64
streams encode 6 bits per character, so a Radix-64 is somewhat shorter
than a hexadecimal stream.

---

From: John W Noerenberg II <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 11:39:06 -0700

>We need to save some bandwidth so that we can use more funny mail

In addition to being more compact than hex digits, it uses a 
character symbol set that is considered "safe" across all systems. It 
wouldn't do if the encoding method included characters that aren't 
representable or whose numeric equivalent is ambiguous.

Bandwidth does matter -- even when the email headers are longer than 
the message....which is goofy, I know...which is why a message saying 
only "ok" or "thanks" may be polite, but not necessarily the most 
efficient thing to do.

best,
-- 

john noerenberg
[email-masked]
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