"Code that can't be cracked" -- Toronto Star, January 19th 2004

[phaktor5]

if anyone want to crack it the easy way go to EB games and buy "Uplink: Haker Elite." The ecc is used for banks and other agencies.

[Maestr0]

Of course it will be cracked in time. The point of the challenge I think is to find a weakness in the alogorithms that would allow someone to crack it before the universe ends. People have been using RSA since 1978 and although its a little older it still holds up pretty good. Somehow I dont think anyone here is going to be cracking it anytime soon. And just because one key has been discovered (apparently through bruteforce, not an algorithim weakness) doesnt mean the encryption has been cracked, it all depends whether there is a weakness in the system that allows for other key discoveries etc.

-Maestr0

[Und3ertak3r]

Attempt#: 2,342,109......Failed
Attempt#: 2,342,110......Failed
Attempt#: 2,342,111......Failed
Attempt#: 2,342,112......Failed
Attempt#: 2,342,113......Failed
Attempt#: 2,342,114......Failed
Attempt#: 2,342,115......Failed
Attempt#: 2,342,116......Failed

Me thinks I need to add a few more PS-2's to the cluster....

Serious.. some time the most complex of formulas can be reversed with the simplest of equations..


Cheers

[Scriptersx]

lol my friend has that game and he allways tries to show me his "L337 H4X0R 5K1LL5", that game is just i candy and nothing real

[Tim_axe]

Come on Und3ertak3r - If those are you latest counts you still have 18,161,817,240,391 more ittelerations to go for the small 79bit challenge..., which has already been broken and the $5,000 or so already claimed... Aparrently this challenge has been going on since 1997 according to Lansing_Banda's post...

I don't understand any of the calculus behind this stuff, seeing that I'm taking that next year in HS, but apparently the reason it is so hard to compute is that the amount of time to compute with all of their formulas is exponental. If that is truely the case, I wonder if the exponentialness of brute forcing it is less than their algorithms? And if it is, then they are more suceptable to brute-force attacks than RSA...Right? (Much smaller key size = Much less combinations to brute force through) Or am I missing something here that is special with these curves...? Again, I don't understand most anything in that paper except that we're lookinf for l, where Q = lP, though I don't see why Q and P are so special...

When I finally do understand any of the math behind this I'll be sure to look into it. I can probably safely bookmark this for a year or two before visiting it again and still have the potential $1 Million or so to dream about...



Edit:
Q = lP
Q/P = l

I broke it, as long as Q and P are provided...
j/k - I don't know what they give you, and surely you don't offer a million $ for something as trivial as that...

[Sunflare]

Two words. Quantum Computing.

[groovicus]

I keep getting site not found...oh well. Must be a bunch of wannna be millionaires.

I'd be more interested in seeing the applications they are using the algorithm with (or for which they are using the algorithm) It doesn't do a lot of good to have an uncrackable code if you can bypass the routine that checks for it in the first place.

[D0pp139an93r]

Well, I think this is an interesting challenge. I think I'll crack it tonight just for fun

Shouldn't take more than a few minutes, I do run Linux after all...

Seriously though, if it's as tough as they say, it's going to be a great thing for people in the US. Since it's a Canadian company, the encryption technology won't be subject to the foolish export laws of the United States.

[pooh sun tzu]

Don't confuse them being overconfident with brilliant. By making their statement they could very well know it is not unbreakable, but know they will get a much larger fanbase of people testing and trying, eventually pulling out the brightest of the bunch because of their very "I bet you can't do it" move. A very good psychological tactic.

A brilliant move, if you recognize their tactics for tactics and not ignorance.

[Tim_axe]

The only people who could stand a chance at breaking it would be people who had access to thousands of computers to attack the code. Brute forcing is pretty much the only way to acturally "break" this, but that isn't what they are paying $1 Million for. If someone comes up with some simple formula as Und3ertak3r alluded to, they will definately get $1 Million and probably result in the fall of the company (hence not working for it, or being paid to keep hush-hush). But over the last 7 years of the competition, tons of smart people went through it and couldn't find that. Although some smart people did find somewhat faster ways, they aren't quite fast enough. Same goes for RSA. Just as nobody found a faster way to factor huge numbers, nobody has found a faster way to compute this ECC stuff. Since nobody has found any way faster, brute force with the methods in the PDF Lansing_Banda linked to are currently the fastest known. I think the $1 Mill is only if you come up with a faster way, and then crack it with all of the computer HP you can before someone else wins the $20,000 by simply brute forcing with known methods.

Yes, it is brilliant. Getting people to do all of your dirtywork of cracking/testing it. But I think that they are also a bit overconfident, and their overconfidence lies in their thinking that their ECC is better than RSA. It very well could be, and they justified it by saying that it is much easier for smaller devices like cellphones, etc., but that entire story sounds like a sales ad. Since I don't understand the calculus behind this eliptical curve stuff, or what they are trying to find about it (and what is given) I don't really see what they are trying to say is so hard. Obviously, if I knew more of the math behind it I would see the point of the algorithm their ECC crypto is based on, and realize what they are stressing with this competition. But I do not, so until I learn anything related to this topic (and calculus) next year I will have to keep out of this competition.

But even if I did understand it, I doubt I'd find the fast formula, or round up the thousand so computers for it. We probably couldn't get a Team AO Crypto Think-Tank of CPUs going; F@H and Seti@Home has shown that. So I'll just go for that Mars lander thing @ http://www.antionline.com/showthread...hreadid=253661

FYI - I've managed to match some characters with patterns. But I havnen't converted it into numbers yet to get the real work done...