How secure is GnuPG

Daniel Carrera dcarrera@math.toronto.edu
Tue Jul 23 23:26:02 2002


> RSA signatures get larger in proportion to the size of the key.  If
> you are going to sign emails and such, be warned that a really big
> signing key is going to mean one huge signature at the bottom.  DSA
> signatures are very small.

Do you suggest using DSA for signatures?
Is a 1024-bit DSA comparible, security-wise, to a 1024-bit RSA or ElGamal?

Is DSA a symmetric algorithm or is it asymmetric like RSA?  I ask because
I know that symmetric algorithms can achieve the same security for much
smaller keys.


> But seriously - forget all that.  The real question to ask yourself is
> *what do you want to do?*  The overwhelming majority of the time,
> people end up with a DSA signing key (1024, the maximum) and an
> ElGamal encryption key (2048-4096).  That is a good all-round safe
> choice for many uses (email being the most common example).

Why is 1024 the maximum for DSA?  That's interesting.


Thanks again,
Daniel.