>>Exactly. Just like breaking the sound barrier or landing on the moon right?
>>If we use current numerical methods and theories then we can not brute
>> force
>>factor a number that large. It just can't be done. Period. At all. Ever.
>
> No, neither of the first two were ever theoretically impossible, even if
> people believed they couldn't be done (right, so a bullet/rocket can fly
> faster
> than sound but a 'plane cannot?)

I think some of the primary arguments were related to the human passenger as
well as non-linear fluid-flow issues for aerodynamics past the speed of
sound. Not to mention that they had the speed of sound wrong .. but that is
another issue. We digress.

>>Why is it .. I just don't believe you?
>
> I'm stressing "brute force" for a reason; it cannot be brute forced.

Not with conventional methods.  Yes.

> Now, if someone cracks AES then that is an entirely different method
> (and that would mean using something other than brute force).  Doubling
> the key size may or mey not help in that case.

It is probably a whole lot easier to get someone passphrase for their ssh
keys via social engineering than to crack things in a linear deterministic
way. Brute force.

>>The old joke was that if you had a million dollars back then you could
>> build
>>a computer that could brute force a 56-bit DES cipher encrypted document.
>>Well a million dollars was a LOT more money back then and computers were a
>>LOT slower.
>
> Right, but I'm not sure it was possible then, though such systems were
> clearly build later on.

Now it is possible at home with a 400MHz pentium_pro.

> It seems that the NSA has given up on stronger crypto algorithms but is
> now focusing on making people generate poor key material instead.

Right, if you can not win based on mathematics and the laws of physics (
size of universe, age, time, speed etc ) then just change the laws of
mankind to enforce full disclosure. Very neat trick that.

>>I still think that you may be missing an opportunity to look at other
>>methods being developed.
>
> Other methods != brute force.

I agree totally.

Msieve v. 1.19
Mon Jan 14 11:02:01 2008
random seeds: 6ae21d54 12200b07
factoring
81504283279205827748318346754167314925743326695743331301550412770886782490664428211429150573
(92 digits)
commencing quadratic sieve (92-digit input)
using multiplier of 1
sieve interval: 9 blocks of size 65536
processing polynomials in batches of 6
using a sieve bound of 1854353 (69412 primes)
using large prime bound of 209541889 (27 bits)
using double large prime bound of 951234263885510 (42-50 bits)
using trial factoring cutoff of 52 bits
polynomial 'A' values have 12 factors

sieving in progress (press Ctrl-C to pause)

see you next week with the two and only two factors to that monster :-)

-
Dennis Clarke

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