Crypto researchers abuzz over flaws

[Gary Stoneburner <gary.stoneburner@nist.gov>]

re:
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5313655.html

"The excitement began Thursday with an announcement that French
computer scientist Antoine Joux had uncovered a flaw in a popular
algorithm called MD5, often used with digital signatures. Then four
Chinese researchers released a paper that reported a way to circumvent a
second algorithm, SHA-0."

"In a presentation Tuesday evening, however, Biham reported some
early work toward identifying vulnerabilities in the SHA-1 algorithm,
which is believed to be secure.  ...  Biham's presentation was
very preliminary, but it could call into question the long-term future of
the wildly popular SHA-1 algorithm and spur researchers to identify
alternatives."

Cheers,
Gary

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* Gary Stoneburner
* Computer Security Division, National Institute of Standards & Technology
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