<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class="">From this blog post: <a href="http://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2015/10/a-riddle-wrapped-in-curve.html" class="">http://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2015/10/a-riddle-wrapped-in-curve.html</a></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">To quote Matthew Green:</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><BEGIN></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><blockquote class="" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;"><div class=""><div class="p1">By calculating the number of possible curve families, Koblitz and Menezes show that a vast proportion of curves (for P-256, around 2^{209} out of 2^{257}) would have to be weak in order for the NSA to succeed in this attack. The implications of such a large class of vulnerable curves is very bad for the field of ECC. It dwarfs <i class="">every previous known weak curve class </i>and would call into question the decision to use ECC <i class="">at all.</i></div><div class="p2"><br class=""></div><div class="p1">In other words, Koblitz and Menezes are saying that <i class="">if</i> you accept the weak curve hypothesis into your heart, the solution is not to <a href="https://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/cfrg/current/msg06426.html" class="">replace the NIST elliptic curves</a> with anything at all, but rather, to leave the building as rapidly as possible and perhaps not shut the door on the way out. No joke.<br class=""><br class="">On the gripping hand, this sounds very much like the plan NSA is currently implementing. Perhaps we <i class="">should</i> be worried.</div></div><div class="p1"><br class=""></div></blockquote></END><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">So, I’m not a cryptographer, but ya’ll (supposedly) are. Any legitimacy to this?</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">- Greg</div></body></html>