Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!elroy!mahendo!wlbr!hacgate!gryphon!desint!geoff
From: geoff@desint.UUCP (Geoff Kuenning)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: X11R3 security hole needs attention
Message-ID: <16@desint.UUCP>
Date: 21 Mar 89 07:16:56 GMT
References: <8903172201.AA16819@EXPIRE.LCS.MIT.EDU>
Reply-To: geoff@desint.UUCP (Geoff Kuenning)
Organization: Interrupt Technology Corp., Manhattan Beach, CA
Lines: 20

In article <8903172201.AA16819@EXPIRE.LCS.MIT.EDU> rws@EXPO.LCS.MIT.EDU
(Bob Scheifler) writes:

> (And then, there's this problem with distributing
> cryptographic stuff outside the US ...)

Not really.  The "problem" is that the folks in the Reagan-now-Bush
administration, having never read any Heinlein, foolishly think that
the U.S. Government can stop the spread of cryptographic technology
simply by applying their heavy hands to U.S. researchers.

The solution, which is as simple as the minds of the bureaucrats,  is to
publish the requisite algorithms without the "sensitive" software, but
with a vague and general description of what that supposedly
unique-to-the-special-capabilities-of-the-USA software does.  Pretty
soon, somebody outside the U.S. (frequently an Australian) will post
public-domain software which achieves the same effect;  we then pick it
up in the U.S. and everybody is happy.
-- 
	Geoff Kuenning   geoff@ITcorp.com   uunet!desint!geoff