[Cryptography Team] ECC and/or NSA Suite B?

[Ron Teitelbaum]

What has Sun contributed to OpenSSL?  I guess my question is this: If there
are version of ECC that are developed and patented by Sun that have been
given to the OS communities, either directly or through the OpenSSL license
then can we use their implementation?  

I wouldn't want to post any code that is not open source in our library
which would includes IDEA, MDC2 and RC5.

If we find that ECC is only available to government users then I suggest we
do not include it in our repository, the risk would be too great.

What we need to understand is what ECC technology is currently Open Source
and can we do our own implementation and distribute it.

Ron

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Cerebus [mailto:cerebus2 at gmail.com]
> Sent: Friday, November 24, 2006 2:36 PM
> To: Ron at usmedrec.com; Cryptography Team Development List
> Subject: Re: RE: [Cryptography Team] ECC and/or NSA Suite B?
> 
> Certicom also holds patents on a number of ECC things (like almost all
> of ECMQV and things like point compression).  NSA has licensed
> Certicom's ECC patents en masse for anything done on US Gov't
> contract.
> 
> There's a patent letter on the SECG website:
> 
> http://www.secg.org/
> 
> Part of the problem right now is that ECC work is a bit divided, which
> has made standardization a bit of a pain.
> 
> -- Tim
> 
> On 11/24/06, Ron Teitelbaum <Ron at usmedrec.com> wrote:
> > Forgot the link:
> > http://www.sun.com/emrkt/innercircle/newsletter/0304cto.html
> >
> > Ron
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Ron Teitelbaum [mailto:Ron at USMedRec.com]
> > > Sent: Friday, November 24, 2006 2:25 PM
> > > To: 'Cryptography Team Development List'
> > > Subject: RE: [Cryptography Team] ECC and/or NSA Suite B?
> > >
> > > I'm not sure I understand this since SUN released ECC to the public
> > > domain.  I'll get an opinion on it:
> > >
> > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > From: cryptography-bounces at lists.squeakfoundation.org
> > > > [mailto:cryptography-bounces at lists.squeakfoundation.org] On Behalf
> Of
> > > > Matthew S. Hamrick
> > > > Sent: Friday, November 24, 2006 2:07 PM
> > > > To: Cryptography Team Development List
> > > > Subject: Re: [Cryptography Team] ECC and/or NSA Suite B?
> > > >
> > > > Keep in mind, however, that products violate patent restrictions,
> not
> > > > implementations. Otherwise OpenSSL would not be able to include
> IDEA,
> > > > MDC2 or RC5.
> > > >
> > > > With all the discussion of FIPS 140, I had assumed that most
> everyone
> > > > on the list is working on government contracts. Otherwise, why
> bother
> > > > with it?
> > > >
> > > > The NSA negotiated a blanket US Federal Government deal for
> > > > Certicom's patent portfolio for use in ECDSA, ECDH and ECMQV. So...
> > > > if you're a federal government agency, you get to use these
> > > > algorithms without having to pay Certicom anything extra. So... if
> > > > part of what you're hoping to do is to create an ECC implementation
> > > > that can be used by a federal agency, then you can do so without
> fear
> > > > of the Certicom lawyers. Now... the moment the implementation gets
> > > > used in a commercial product, then you've got issues.
> > > >
> > > > On Nov 23, 2006, at 10:24 PM, Cerebus wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > Is anyone working on Suite B stuff?
> > > > >
> > > > > Rijndael is there, but it probably should be subclassed as AES
> proper
> > > > > if only to lock down the blocksize to 128 bits and the keysize to
> the
> > > > > allowed 128 & 256 bits.
> > > > >
> > > > > SHA256 is there, but it doesn't extent to cover the rest of the
> SHA2
> > > > > family (SHA384 and SHA512).  SHA384 is part of Suite B.
> > > > >
> > > > > Is anyone working on ECDSA, ECDH & ECMQV?  (Well, given that ECMQV
> is
> > > > > more heavily patent-encumbered in the US, I can understand if it's
> > > > > left by the wayside).
> > > > >
> > > > > If not I might take a crack at a couple of pieces.
> > > > >
> > > > > -- Tim
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