Cracking DES

Sometimes you have to do good engineering to straighten out twisted politics. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit organization that was founded to ensure that the principles embodied in the Constitution and Bill of Rights are protected as new communications technologies emerge, and O"Reilly, the premier publisher of computer and computer-related books, team up to produce Cracking DES: Secrets of Encryption Research, Wiretap Politics & Chip Design. By doing this they have exploded the government-supported myth that the Data Encryption Standard (DES) has real security.

National Security Agency and FBI officials say our civil liberties must be curtailed because the government can't crack the security of DES to wiretap bad guys. But somehow a tiny nonprofit has designed and built a $200,000 machine that cracks DES in a week. Who's lying, and why?

For the first time, the book reveals full technical details on how researchers and data-recovery engineers can build a working DES Cracker. It includes design specifications and board schematics, as well as full source code for the custom chip, a chip simulator, and the software that drives the system. The U.S. government makes it illegal to publish these details on the Web, but they're printed here in a form that's easy to read and understand, legal to publish, and convenient for scanning into your computer.

The Data Encryption Standard withstood the test of time for twenty years. This book shows exactly how it was brought down. Every cryptographer, security designer, and student of cryptography policy should read this book to understand how the world changed as it fell.

Foreword
Preface

Chapter 1: Overview

Politics of Decryption
Goals
History of DES Cracking
EFF's DES Cracker Project
Architecture
Who Else Is Cracking DES?
What To Do If You Depend On DES
Conclusion

Chapter 2: Design for DES Key Search Array

On-Chip Registers
Commands
Search Unit Operation
Sample Programming Descriptions
Scalability and Performance
Host Computer Software
Glossary

Chapter 3: Design for DES Key Search Array Chip-Level Specification

ASIC Description
Board description
Read and Write Timing
Addressing Registers
All-active Signal
ASIC Register Allocation

Chapter 4: Scanning the Source Code

The Politics of Cryptographic Source Code
The Paper Publishing Exception
Scanning
Bootstrapping

Chapter 5: Software Source Code
Chapter 6: Chip Source Code
Chapter 7: Chip Simulator Source Code
Chapter 8: Hardware Board Schematics

Board Schematics
Sun-4/470 backplane modifications
PC Interfaces
Errata

Chapter 9: Breaking One Million DES Keys by Yvo Desmedt

Abstract
Introduction
The basic idea
Details of such a machine
Obtained results and remarks
Conclusion
Acknowledgement

Chapter 10: Architectural Considerations for Cryptanalytic Hardware

Abstract
Introduction
Motivation
Related work
Technical Approach
Design and Analysis
Future work
Conclusions
Acknowledgements
Availability
References

Chapter 11: Efficient DES Key Search: An Update by Michael J. Wiener

Advancing Technology
Programmable Hardware
Conclusion

Chapter 12: Authors

The Electronic Frontier Foundation
John Gilmore
Cryptography Research
Paul Kocher
Advanced Wireless Technologies