From: Bryan Mongeau <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
bryan> Thanks for the detailed clarification. I can then extrapolate
bryan> that Rijndael can be used as the block cipher in network
bryan> encryption only if its symmetric key were to be encrypted with
bryan> the intended recipient's public key.
That is basically correct and is common practice in basically all
protocols that use public key encryption.
bryan> This seems to be undesirable practice since it offers no more
bryan> security than public key encryption.
In a way that is true, provided someone catches and decrypts the
relatively short message containing that symmetric key, which, with a
string enough public key, is assumed to be really difficult. However,
do you have a better way of sharing a symmetric key than encrypting it
with the intended recipients public key? Personally, I've a hard time
coming up with a practice that at least feels more secure and at the
same time is that practical.
bryan> I'm wondering, are there any alternatives to DH/RSA/DSA for
bryan> sharing a cipher key over an insecure network? Why isn't AES
bryan> more suited to PKI, seeing as they tout it as the "new business
bryan> standard"?
The problem with public key cryptography is that it is slow, and would
become a royal pain to use over long messages. That's the main reason
why it's only used for short messages, for example to pass along a
secret, like a symmetric key, which allows the protocol to switch to a
chosen symmetric algorithm and do the rest of the communication
through that.
Considering that Rijndael is much more secure than DES, which is the
predecessor (sp?) to AES, I'm not quite sure what you're talking
about.
Have you read anything on this subject?
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