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From: pase@ogcvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.crypt
Subject: Naieve Inquiry: Streaming Cyphers (?)
Message-ID: <1065@ogcvax.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 10-Jul-86 14:35:54 EDT
Article-I.D.: ogcvax.1065
Posted: Thu Jul 10 14:35:54 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 13-Jul-86 10:18:41 EDT
Reply-To: pase@ogcvax.UUCP (Douglas M. Pase)
Organization: Oregon Graduate Center, Beaverton, OR
Lines: 18

I am familiar with the internals of the RSA, but not the DES algorithm.  The
RSA scheme soaks up blocks of plaintext, then spits out blocks of cyphertext.
Does the DES scheme do the same, or is it able to encrypt one character at a
time?

It seems that encrypting whole blocks would be most inconvenient for hardware
whose sole purpose was to encrypt data for secure transmission across
communication lines (say for a bank's automated teller machine).  If one
wanted to build add-on equipment that would attach, say, between a computer's
RS232 port and a modem, which would encrypt data for secure transmission,
would DES hardware be appropriate?  Or would there be a delay while the
box soaked up a block, encrypted it, then transmitted the result?

I realize that a pipelined approach would be one alternative, but I would like
to avoid the setup time required to fill the pipe.  (It would be a three-stage
pipe, soaking up a block, encrypting the block and transmitting it.)

Thanks in advance for any/all replies