skipjack.c in contrib/do-not-use/

[Len Sassaman]

On 18 Sep 2001, Roland E. Lipovits wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Could anybody give me a pointer to the reason why the module
> skipjack.c is in a directory called "do-not-use"?

Because you aren't supposed to use it.

(Oh, did you mean "Why aren't we supposed to use this module?")

skipjack isn't part of OpenPGP, first of all. Secondly, it's a weak cipher
developed by the NSA to provide an algorithm that could support key
escrow. (Though there were weaknesses discovered, that the NSA wasn't
aware of, after it was released.)

I have no idea why anyone would ever want to use it.


--

Len Sassaman

Security Architect            |  "I must play their game, of
Technology Consultant         |   not seeing I see the game."
                              |
http://sion.quickie.net       |                --R .D. Laing