# Solid summary of what encryption remains strong after recent events [closed]

Following the recent government hacking (and subsequent news and fallout), I'm wondering what crypto-systems remain strong (and why) and what crypto-systems were exploited too heavily to be reliable. I'm wondering what will remain strong for the foreseeable future and why these systems were not affected (while the others presumably were).

I tried to find the information on the following and many other pages, but they were not very helpful in this case…

Perhaps someone can help me understand this.

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## closed as off-topic by rath, e-sushi, Gilles, Maarten Bodewes, B-ConOct 16 '13 at 4:41

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Nothing has changed, really. You shouldn't use Dual_EC_DRBG, but then again, we've known you shouldn't use it since 2007. We know that certificate authorities are a weak link in the chain, but we've always known that. Snowden et al have said that one of the few defenses remaining is strong cryptography. –  Reid Oct 14 '13 at 22:48
@Reid I read something about SSL being exploited by them is that totally not accurate? Also, I read that elliptic curve and matrix-based crypto were considered very secure, and RSA and most of the other schemes remained. Was most of their hacking like at the application-level (like backdoors) or were they actually able to attack some of the cryptosystems? –  stackuser Oct 14 '13 at 22:53

NSA's own nuclear, military, navy, airforce and classified government networks are probably some of the most secure systems on the planet. They need to be extremely strong to protect the armed forces, government and populace. However the same cannot be said for their publicly recommended encryption systems because recent leaks have shown their intention is to backdoor/weaken those systems/standards that are in commercial/public use so they can use their surveillance network to monitor what everyone is doing. Their aim is totalitarian control and subversion of democracy.

They have not just been weakening one standard (Dual EC DBRG), they have been weakening a lot of them. You would be ill advised to continue using them. As of 2013-10-15 The Wikipedia link you gave provides a good list of those likely compromised systems to avoid. Until we know the full extent of the damage to cryptography in general it is better to lean on the side of caution. For starters that means avoiding any standard to do with NSA/NIST.

Standards with NSA involvement to avoid:

Suite B - set of cryptographic algorithms promulgated by the NSA as part of its Cryptographic Modernization Program

Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) - an encryption algorithm, selected by NIST after a public competition. In 2003, NSA certified AES for Type 1 use in some NSA-approved systems.

Secure Hash Algorithm - a widely used family of hash algorithms developed by NSA based on earlier designs by Ron Rivest.

Digital Signature Algorithm

Data Encryption Standard (DES)

Skipjack - the cipher developed for Clipper and finally published in 1998.

Clipper chip - a controversial failure that convinced NSA that it was advisable to stay out of the public arena.

Security-Enhanced Linux - not strictly an encryption system, but a recognition that in the 21st century, operating system improvements are vital to information security as well.

So what is left that is still good to use?

• At the perfect security end you have got one-time pads and other cryptosystems that are information-theoretically secure. These are still in use by governments today. They transfer the one-time pads between embassies with diplomatic bags etc which are protected under the Vienna Convention.
• After that you've got stream ciphers which attempt to mimic the one-time pad. These are likely still secure assuming you have a very long, quality random seed to begin with, an unbroken implementation and well designed CSPRNG. They do not offer perfect security however but would probably still frustrate the NSA.
• After that there is independently designed block ciphers that should be ok to use for less important things e.g. hard disk encryption. For example, Serpent, Twofish, Threefish etc. Remember you want 256 bits or greater to take into effect recent developments in quantum computing and cryptanalytic breakthroughs.
• Newer hashing algorithms not designed by NSA should be fine to use. Recent examples might be finalists in the recent NIST hash competition. Obviously steer clear of the finalised SHA-3 standard by NIST and use the original Keccak algorithm which has already been vetted by various cryptographers. You do not need NIST's "tweaks" that are being made to suit their purposes, not yours.
• Elliptic curve cryptography is not my area of expertise. However if you are going that route avoid the NIST recommended curves and use some independently vetted ones.

Public key cryptography is a nice idea in theory, but it breaks down in the real world. In today's world with all the internet backbones tapped by "Five Eyes" countries and numerous untrusted router hops along the way, you do not actually have an authentic channel to transfer the public key to someone in the first place. In other words you have no idea if the public key you are receiving is actually the one you want to receive and not an attacker's. There is no provable authenticity. If you really wanted to use public key cryptography you would transfer the public key to them in person and load it into your keychain as trusted. That lets you know for sure that this is the real key and not an attacker's key. Potentially you could at least verify a checksum/hash of the key over another channel e.g. telephone. It is probably harder for an attacker to synthesize someone's voice in real-time. The CIA or MI6 could probably pull it off though.

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Just because NSA/NIST has touched a cipher it is not evidence of malicious tampering. NSA's own nuclear, military, navy, airforce and classified government networks are probably some of the most secure systems on the planet. Anonymous attacks in recent years plus the Manning/Snowden cases beg to differ. Their aim is totalitarian control and subversion of democracy. Probably but this site is certainly not a place for this discussion. you do not actually have an authentic channel to transfer the public key to someone in the first place. Of course you do. It's called Tor. –  rath Oct 15 '13 at 3:49
It is probably harder for an attacker to synthesize someone's voice in real-time. It's actually pretty easy. You do not need NIST's "tweaks" that are being made to suit their purposes, not yours. DES S-boxes were tweaked to harden against differential cryptanalysis. Plus you'd have to do your own implementation which is a big no-no. Last one: If I were to use AES in CFB mode, according to your argument would I be secure or not? –  rath Oct 15 '13 at 3:55
1) Avoiding a cipher because NSA have touched it is just common sense. 2) US government systems are probably more secure than most. 3) As for totalitarian control, well that's just a one line sentence in my post and off topic here but just look at what is going on around you, open your eyes. 4) TOR has its own problems and methods of attack for the NSA as you should know @rath. Read the recent news articles. If you can't debate the points and just downvote then go somewhere else and spread your propaganda. –  nomoni Oct 15 '13 at 3:57
@nomoni: I'm the one who downvoted you, mostly because your post is BS. That you suggest avoiding AES is enough to make me seriously doubt your expertise on the subject. When you add the extreme political subtext (this is not the appropriate forum for such) and the recommendation to avoid ECDSA, (3)DES, and SHA-2, I think you were pretty deserving of the downvote. Edit: There were five AES finalists, by the way, not three. –  Reid Oct 15 '13 at 4:05
Come on people, it's quite good post on the topic. Even if these bits are not entirely true or proven. Security 101 - Be a cynical asshole - you'll do better. You really can't give a technically sane answer to a question like this... –  Ivarpoiss Oct 15 '13 at 21:35

We don't know what NSA (or any other spy agency--the US isn't the only country with code breakers) has broken. Other than Dual EC DRBG, we are left with everyone making their best guess, just like before. The NIST elliptic curves and the SHA2 hashes and DSA all came from NSA, but that seems to be the only real reason to suspect anything bad about them. Neither AES nor SHA3/Keccak have anything at all to do with NSA.

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NIST is required by law to consult with the NSA on new encryption standards. And often these standards get unexplained alterations before they are finalized. Of course that doesn't indicate how much actual influence the NSA have on the process. It could just be a basic consultation, or they could manipulate the outcome (claiming there is a weakness in one of the standard they actually have difficulty with in order to push the decision to one they have an attack on), or they could be more active in manipulating the outcome. –  David C. Bishop Oct 28 '13 at 10:16
Another example would be the IPSec standard. –  David C. Bishop Oct 28 '13 at 10:25