Researcher uses 379-year-old algorithm to crack crypto keys found in the wild

Researcher uses 379-year-old algorithm to crack crypto keys found in the wild

From the bottom of the article " People who own a vulnerable printer should check with the manufacturer to find out if there's a firmware update that will replace the weak keys. Let's Encrypt has also implemented a checker that will detect keys with primes that are too close together."

Which is here: Add close-primes detection via Fermat's factorization #5853 on GitHub.

Nice work to the Staff of Let's Encrypt! :+1:

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There's an old saying in cryptography: The generation of random numbers is too important to be left to chance.

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One of the few absolute truths! RANDOM.ORG

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That's awesome, but in

https://factorable.net/

the researchers used a variant of a 2,300-year-old algorithm to crack crypto keys found in the wild. :slight_smile:

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Many/most of the researchers and grad students I have mentored initially struggled with the distinction between arbitrary and random numbers. An unreasoned or reasoned choice can be made to utilize a random number, thus the utilization of the random number can be arbitrary (e.g. any number will do) or not (e.g. desire of lack of predictability).

I have typically asked them how many inputs a true random number generation (TRNG) function should have. This usually results in receiving a blank stare to which I state: "0". Those understanding software design will then ask how it is possible to generate a random number without any external inputs. My reply is: "exactly".

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