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Re: TLS 1.0 "draft-ietf-tls-protocol-01.txt" Now Available

From: David P. Kemp <dpkemp@missi.ncsc.mil>
Date: Fri, 7 Mar 1997 10:27:29 -0500
Message-Id: <199703071527.KAA27623@argon.ncsc.mil>
To: ietf-tls@w3.org
> 
> At 08:55 AM 3/7/97 -0500, David P. Kemp wrote:
> >  I noticed that the draft still contains references to ciphersuites
> >including the unpublished algorithms RC2 and RC4.
> 
> I believe RC2 is still a trade secret, but RC4 was leaked to the Cypherpunks
> list in September, '94.  The algorithm is described in Chapter 17 of Bruce
> Schneier's "Applied Cryptography", 2ed.


Yes, of course it is.  And "alleged RC4" is also posted on Ron Rivest's
web page.   But I'm sure Phil Karlton had a copy of Schneier when he wrote
the statement "There is no good reference to these [RC2, RC4] as they
are unpublished works" in the SSL specification.  This statement is still
included in the current TLS draft -01.

Perhaps you should check with RSADSI to see if they still regard RC4 as
an "unpublished work", despite the fact that it leaked out some time ago.
Received on Friday, 7 March 1997 10:28:07 EST

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