Re: Merkle, URLs, etc

>>{SHA-1 is] not THAT broken, especially not for
>>BitTorrent's purpose.  We may also see some new 20-byte hashes that
>>don't have SHA's weakness.  "160 bits ought to be enough for everyone." 
>>;-)
>>    
>>
>
>It is unlikely that there will be any good new 160 bit hashes. The 2^80 
>security offered by them has been considered just barely good enough for a 
>decade, and an increasing number of cryptanalysts (including myself) are 
>pushing that with the breaks seemingly coming faster and faster now we might 
>as well just jump to the stronger hashes now, and prepare for a quick jump 
>in the future.
>

Well, please remember that, when it comes to BitTorrent not only is it 
not 2^80 but 2^160 security, but BitTorrent has a fixed block size where 
many of these attacks require variable block sizes, and I don't think 
the new attack is even relevant to SHA-1's strong anti-collision 
capability.  It might cause havoc with other systems needing signatures, 
but I don't think it affects BT any.


 
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