[nycbug-talk] RSA/DSA for encryption: has it's time come?

[Okan Demirmen]

On Tue, Aug 27, 2013 at 9:50 PM, George Rosamond
<george at ceetonetechnology.com> wrote:
> Okan Demirmen:
>> On Tue, Aug 27, 2013 at 7:24 PM, George Rosamond
>> <george at ceetonetechnology.com> wrote:
>>> Okan Demirmen:
>>>> On Wed, Aug 7, 2013 at 9:58 AM, Isaac (.ike) Levy
>>>> <ike at blackskyresearch.net> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> Hi All,
>>>>>
>>>>> I'd love to know what people's thoughts are on the state of older
>>>>> RSA/DSA encryption, versus the future of eliptic curve ECDSA:
>>>>>
>>>>> http://www.technologyreview.com/news/517781/math-advances-raise-the-prospect-of-an-internet-security-crisis/
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> A few years ago, a number of us were wary of the brand-spankin'-new ECC
>>>>> crypto for use in SSH public keys.  And then months later, there were
>>>>> some ECDSA/ssh implementation problems exposed:
>>>>>
>>>>> http://marc.info/?l=openssh-unix-dev&m=130613765816780&w=2
>>>>>
>>>>> So, that was 2 years ago, ECDSA implementations are now no longer in
>>>>> their infancy.
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> What are people's thoughts on the practicality of starting to use ECDSA
>>>>> keys?
>>>>>
>>>>> Has anyone here seen their use mandated over RSA/DSA in a business setting?
>>>>> Has anyone just jumped into ECDSA bliss, and not looked back?
>>>>
>>>> Not that this might mean much, but I use them.
>>>>
>>>> As for policies in a business setting; I gather such technical
>>>> policies are made by people like you, so it's likely up to what folks
>>>> like you write in said policies :)
>>>
>>> So I'm in the process of getting a client to pickup better practices
>>> with SSH, and found out even OSX 10.7.5 doesn't support ecdsa.
>>>
>>> AFAIK, Putty doesn't either yet, and I doubt SSH for Windows does either.
>>
>> So many things there just blew my mind...but OK, I'll mend myself later :)
>>
>> I'd simply recommend to them to start using keys, regardless of type -
>> get them in the habit, and whenever these other tools get support for
>> the new fangle stuff, just add to authorized keys and migrate.  Just
>> get them in the habit of thinking about keys instead.  I'm sure you
>> know all this....
>
> Like most of the sane world, they are using keys.. with passwds.  I'm
> going the next step.

I figured.  So here's my issue, and you can call it a double-edged
sword if you want - one is storing private keys on client that lives
in an extremely hostile environment - that is the vector that needs to
be addressed.  Sure, remove keys and use passwords instead - then
we're back to that debate.

Double-edged? Maybe, but think about the use-case and attack vectors -
that's all I'm saying.

>> ...and with Brian here, get their client software to something recent.
>>
>
> g