Hi Bastian, On Sat, Dec 17, 2005 at 02:25:25PM +0100, Bastian Blank wrote: > On Tue, Aug 16, 2005 at 08:58:42PM +0200, Max Vozeler wrote: > > It would be useful to have uuencode available in busybox-udeb for the > > support of block device encryption in partman-crypto. In particular, I'd > > like to use uuencode to create loop-AES multi-key style encryption keys.
> Reasons: > - unneccesary, keys never needs to be readable. They do need to be in base64 in order to retain compatibility with previous (and future) loop-AES versions. loop-AES multi-key contain 1, 64 or 65 newline-seperated keys. The number of keys decides how the keyfile is used for setup: 1 key is equivalent to normal hashed passphrase setup, 64-key format is v2 where keys are alternated to encrypt sectors, and 65-key format is v2 with an extra key (65th) to seed MD5 IV computation. > - reduces the entrophy. No, the entropy does not change with different presentation. We have 2925 bytes of random data, or 45 bytes for each key. So entropy available for each key (assuming ideal /dev/random) is 256^45 = 2.3485e+108. When we uuencode this data, each key transforms into a base64-string of 60 bytes, so entropy is 64^60 = 2.3485e+108 = 256^45. The longer string makes up for the reduced alphabet. That we only have base64 characters doesn't matter because all keys are used as input to a hash function only. > I reject the patch. I understand your reservations, but I think they are not actually justified. Please reconsider. cheers, Max -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
