From: patl@golem.mit.edu (Patrick J. LoPresti)
Subject: Re: S1, S2
Organization: Massachvsetts Institvte of Technology
Lines: 32
NNTP-Posting-Host: golem.mit.edu
In-reply-to: steve-b@access.digex.com's message of 22 Apr 1993 07:52:46 -0400


>>>>> In article <1r60ue$102@access.digex.net>,
>>>>> steve-b@access.digex.com (Steve Brinich) writes:

 > Second question: Why!?!? Why is such a strange procedure used, and
 >not a real RNG ? This turns those S1,S2 in a kind of bottleneck for
 >system- security.

	>> The only theory that makes any sense is that S1 and S2 are
	>> either the same for all chips, or vary among very few
	>> possibilities, so that anyone trying to break the encryption
	>> by brute force need only plow through the possible serial
	>> numbers (2^30, about one billion), multiplied by the number
	>> of different S1, S2 combinations.


Suppose instead that S1 and S2 can be reconstructed given 3 or 4 of the
unit keys generated in a single batch (through some sort of known
plaintext attack, say).  Suppose further that 3 or 4 of the chips
programmed in each session never find their way into commercial
products, but instead end up "elsewhere".

Suppose the folks at "elsewhere" can determine a unit key, given
physical access to one of these chips.  Then those same folks can
determine S1 and S2 for the whole batch...

Too many suppositions?  Yeah, probably.

- Pat



