Re: CIPHER -- MI400

Hi Beth,

Thanks for the post.

So if I want to implement private key/public key encryption, where as i 
understand it, the public key encrypts the data and the private key unencrypts 
it, ( and the reverse where the private key encrypts and the public key 
unencrypts ), ....  the CIPHER operation will do this?

Is that how ssl and vpn encryption work:  public key and private key?

If so, could you specify which CIPHER algorithm is used, or is most common?

Also, the encryption key lgth.  Is that what the bit nbrs ( 56 bit, 128 bit, 
... ) refer to?  Are there still laws that limit the nbr of bits?

If you have any code samples, I would be interested in seeing them.

Thanks,

Steve Richter


---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: "Beth Hagemeister" <hag@us.ibm.com>
Reply-To: mi400@midrange.com
Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2001 11:44:05 -0500

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>For your information -
>
>In v5r1 several new algorithms were added under the CIPHER MI instruction,
>which now supports the following:
>
>DES - Functions: encrypt, decrypt, MAC.  Key: 56-bit. Modes: ECB, CBC,
>OFB, CFB 1-bit, CFB 8-bit, CFB64-bit.  Padding. Requires installation of
>AC2 or AC3 LP.
>
>TDES - Functions: encrypt, decrypt, MAC.  Key: 56-bit, 112-bit, 168-bit.
>Modes: ECB, CBC, OFB, CFB 1-bit, CFB 8-bit, CFB64-bit.  Padding. Requires
>installation of AC2 (56-bit key - equivalent to single DES) or AC3 LP.
>
>RC4compatible - Functions: encrypt, decrypt. Key: 1-256 bytes.
>
>AES - Functions: encrypt, decrypt, MAC.  Key: 128-bit. Modes: ECB, CBC.
>Block size: 16, 24, 32 bytes.  Requires installation of AC3 LP.  Warning:
>AES algorithm and modes are not yet approved standards and could change in
>the future.
>
>MD5 - Functions: hash, HMAC.
>
>SHA1 - Functions: hash, HMAC.
>
>crypt(3) - This is a string encryption algorithm used on UNIX systems for
>password authentication.  It is based on DES.
>
>pseudorandom number generator - Functions: generate numbers, add seed.
>These functions are also available via 2 new APIs.  Uses FIPS 186-1
>algorithm.  Collects seed automatically and will use a 4758 crypto card if
>one is available on the system.
>
>The QSYSINC/MIH.CIPHER header file has been updated to reflect these new
>algorithms.
>
>Beth Hagemeister
>iSeries Cryptographic Services
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