(getting back to the actual subject…) The actual documents are worthy of a look.
For example, at http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/09/05/us/documents-reveal-nsa-campaign-against-encryption.html?ref=us&pagewanted=all (Goal for CY2013): "Complete enabling for [redacted] encryption chips used in Virtual Private Network and Web encryption devices”. With the following note: "Large Internet companies use dedicated hardware to scramble traffic before it is sent. In 2013, the agency planned to be able to decode traffic that was encoded by one of these two encryption chips, either by working with the manufacturers of the chips to insert back doors or by exploiting a security flaw in the chips' design.” Another interesting goal: "Shape worldwide commercial cryptography marketplace to make it more tractable to advanced cryptanalytic capabilities being developed by NSA/CSS." Elsewhere, "enabling access" and "exploiting systems of interest" and "inserting vulnerabilities”. These are side-channel attacks. I see no other reference to "cryptanalysis", so I would take this statement at face value: NSA has techniques for doing cryptanalysis on certain algorithms/protocols out there, but not all, and they would like to steer public cryptography into areas for which they have attacks. This makes any NSA recommendation *extremely* suspect. As previously reported, and as far as I can see, the big push NSA is making these days is toward ECC with particular curves. Makes you wonder, and makes me willing to reverse my previous position of Suite B library as “best practices”. NSA has two separate roles: Protect American communications, and break into the communications of adversaries. Given the revelations of the past 60 days, one of these things is true: (a) the latter part of the mission has come to dominate the former; or (b) the current definition of an adversary has become so broad as to include pretty much everyone. Jim p.s. It maybe be of interest that both “Bullrun”, and “Manassas”, the program it replaced, are names of battles during the (US) Civil War. Fun reading: http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2013/09/06/nsa_bullrun_manassas_why_is_the_nsa_naming_its_covert_programs_after_civil.html _______________________________________________ List mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pfsense.org/mailman/listinfo/list
