Re: MD5 To Be Considered Harmful Someday
On Tue, Dec 07, 2004 at 06:51:48PM -0700, Joel Maslak wrote:
> That can be a problem. It breaks non-repudiation - someone could create
> such a "swappable" contract and go to court and say "Yes, that's a valid
> signature, but I really signed *THIS* document which just happens to have
> an identical signature." Of course if I was called upon to testify, I
> would respond, "Yes, but it is clear this contract was written with the
> intent to defraud us, as to get this property, it has to be constructed in
> a very specific mind with this fraud in mind at time of contract
> origination..."
Bruce Schneier has long suggested that when signing a document made by
others, make some cosmetic changes to break any precomputed hash that
the creator might have in store for you.
Also: those who are not fully up to speed on the details of crypto hashes
might find my Tech Tip helpful:
An Illustrated Guide to Cryptographic Hashes
http://www.unixwiz.net/techtips/iguide-crypto-hashes.html
Steve
--
Stephen J Friedl | Security Consultant | UNIX Wizard | +1 714 544-6561
www.unixwiz.net | Tustin, Calif. USA | Microsoft MVP | steve@xxxxxxxxxxx