Re: Status of the Java Port?

If I may ask Wolfgang, do you have any suggestions? What are you using
in place of password safe now?

-Dustin

Wolfgang Keller wrote:

It is rather simple what I mean by this.

Statement A.: "PWS uses outdated security technology"

I am referring here to both security functions, namely the encryption
algorithm Blowfish and the cryptological hash function SHA-1.

a) Blowfish falls into the category of 8 byte block modification
schemes. This feature it has in common with the late DES standard which
now is practically an open book for crypt-analysts. Although it is
granted that Blowfish has a better reputation than DES, obviousely some
American official came to the conclusion that 8 byte block modification
is considered a security hazard in respect to ever growing capabilities
of modern cryptanalysis and fast computers. Hence the new standard AES
was developed which has a minimum of 16 byte block modification. As
speaking of the same fathers, Twofish is the successor of Blowfish with
considerably increased security and hence, just by this fact and in
this sense, Blowfish is outdated. - This is of course nothing new to
you.

b) SHA-1 has recently been identified as a possible security risk as
some people found a way to trace collisions. Tracing collisions may be
used for cryptanalytical methods on the ciphertext. For the moment it
may not seem likely to happen, but who knows? Things are changing and
SHA-1 is marked for substitution even by the NIST. Outdated No. 2.

Statement B.: ".. implementation is partly resting on doubtful and erroneous quality"

While basically true, I like to revoke this. I came to the conclusion
after having seen that the SHA-1 code has been tampered with in some
way that seemed to render propriatory (hence doubtful) results. At a
closer look today, however, it showed that the basic security function
of the SHA-1 implementation is alive and only in a small substep there
exists an erroneous result in the sense that this result it is not a
SHA-1 digest but something different. As this step is a secondary step
based on a well-formed SHA-1 value, the "doubtful" result should not be
expected to cause a security damage (under the assumption the SHA-1
does the job).

So please take my apologies for statement B; I will weaken it to " ...
implementation partly rests on a propriatory HMAC function." My basic
conclusion on PWS is however unchanged.

Cheers!

- Wolfgang

J. Wren Hunt wrote:

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Wolfgang Keller wrote:
<snip!>

work, and it ripened to almost a first release, but I have given up on
it after considering a few facts about passwordsafe in general which
have brought me to the conclusion that its security technology is
basically outdated and its implementation is partly resting on doubtful
and erroneous quality. - I have plans to use my developments for a
different project, at an indeterminate time.

So I just gotta ask - can you elaborate on what you mean by this and
possibily provide examples? Thx!

- --

Cheers!

J. Wren Hunt
Cambridge, MA. USA

- ------------
"The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the
difference between lightning and the lightning bug."
-- Mark Twain

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