Hello and 3DES

[Werner Koch]

Michael Roth <mroth at nessie.de> writes:

> Further more what about RSA and IDEA? IMHO their patents expires soon.

RSA expires in fall 2000 but IDEA is going for a very long time
(2017?).  Thre is no need for IDEA; other algorithms are now widely
used and assumed to be as secure as IDEA or securer.  3DES is believed
to be the most secure algorithm due to it's long history of
cryptanalyis.

> Possible a "plugin" or something else could be created for those who
> like/need RSA and IDEA support?

RSA is available (ftp.guug.de/pub/gcrypt/old/rsa.c or something like
this).  IDEA is patented worldwide (but in Luxemborg??) and so we
should not use it.  


Werner