Re: INCREDIBLE - what am I missing here... ??? !!!

From: Phil Hall <hallp@ssax.com>
> Alistair,
> I gave you reasons in a later post why it wasn't 'daft', here's some more;
> 1. It's a public (in the sense that IBM expect you to perform operations on
> the object) object
>
> 2. There are API's to retrieve and set entries in this object
>
> 3. The entries are encrypted, poorly (in the sense the keyspace is
> restricted by the system values that control what can be used as a
> password), but still encrypted
>
> 4. Tools other than the API's (since V4R5 by default, and lower release by
> applying PTF's) do not return the contents of the object - thus unless you
> have been given access to the API's (they come as public *EXCLUDE, and you
> need to have *SECADM special auth too) you won't see any data.
>

These words from Bruce Schneier (Preface to Applied Cryptography)
may also be applicable:

If I take a letter, lock it in a safe, hide the safe somewhere in New York,
then tell you to read the letter, that's not security. That's obscurity.
On the other hand, if I take a letter and lock it in a safe, and then give
you the safe along with the design specifications of the safe and a
hundred identical safes with their combinations so that you and the
world's best safecrackers can study the locking mechanism - you
still can't open the safe and read the letter - that's security.



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