Imported from previous forum
[ original email was from Yevgeniy Tovshteyn - yevgeniy@javtech.com ]
What is the official strength in bits of Encryption Method PGP-DES-MD5?
Most people use 1024 bits for PGP but it is possible to use 512 or 768, I believe. DES is 56 bit.
> What is the official strength in bits of Encryption Method PGP-DES-MD5?
>
[ original email was from craig iskowitz - craig@mondial.com ]
PGP v6 supports keys anywhere from 768 to 4096 bits in length (default = 2048). However, it has been known for sometime that 512-bit keys are insecure.
If doubt exists about the ability to factor a 512-bit key, one only has to see that a 465-bit key was broken with just 2,000 MIPS-years of effort and very recently a 512-bit key was broken with 8,000 MIPS-years of effort. For comparison, breaking a 56-bit DES key is 50 times harder than breaking a 512-bit RSA key.
Assuming "reasonable" advances in number theory and computing power, along with the growth of distributed computing via the Internet, a 1024-key will only offer guaranteed security (assuming the RSAP / DLP is indeed intractable) for a period of around 5-years.
We use 2048 bits for data encryption in our products since it doesn’t take any longer to encrypt.
Regards,
Craig
> Most people use 1024 bits for PGP but it is possible to use 512 or 768, I believe. DES is 56 bit.
>
> > What is the official strength in bits of Encryption Method PGP-DES-MD5?
> >
>