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Subject: Re: Rijndael - the real work now begins
From: Bill Stewart (bill.stewartpobox.com)
Date: Sat Oct 07 2000 - 15:37:40 CDT

At 11:00 AM 10/7/00 -0400, Ian Grigg wrote:
>Bill Stewart wrote:
>
>> While I'm not aware of many companies doing anything about it,
>> it's not really that tough - all of the algorithms had
>> relatively similar parameters and sizes and calling requirements,
>> and they were required to provide reference editions.
>> So you should be able to write a couple of routines like
>> aes_keyschedule(parm1, parm2...)
>> aes_encrypt(*key, data)
>> aes_decrypt(*key, data)
>> and plug in the reference editions with some format-munger glue.
>
>Yes, that could have been done. And actually, we on the team
>had a good feeling about Rijndael during the last couple of
>months, so we could have done that.
>
>But somehow the thought never entered our heads, and even now,
>I don't think it is valuable. What would be the benefit of
>pre-announcing something like that?

It isn't something you do to pre-announce who you think will win,
it's something that lets you implement and test your solution
for all 5 leading candidates beforehand so when there is a winner,
you can announce support for it, rather than announcing
that you'll have support in three months,
because the interfaces for all 5 are similar enough you can
plug in the winnner when you know which it is.

                                Thanks!
                                        Bill
Bill Stewart, bill.stewartpobox.com
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