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From: well!rsa@lll-crg.llnl.gov (RSA Data Security)
Newsgroups: comp.virus
Subject: Re: Signature Programs
Message-ID: <0001.9002021158.AA26135@ge.sei.cmu.edu>
Date: 31 Jan 90 20:14:06 GMT
Sender: Virus Discussion List <VIRUS-L@IBM1.CC.Lehigh.EDU>
Lines: 51
Approved: krvw@sei.cmu.edu


          The following  paper is  presented for review and discussion.  It
          will be submitted to a number of conferences and MD4 will
	  be proposed to a number of standards organizations. We encourage
	  people to study and evaluate MD4.
          _________________________________________________________________

                          The MD4 Message Digest Algorithm
                          --------------------------------

                                 by Ronald L. Rivest
             MIT Laboratory for Computer Science, Cambridge, Mass. 02139
                                         and
               RSA Data Security, Inc., Redwood City, California 94065


                  (C) Copyright 1989, 1990 RSA Data Security, Inc.

	       			  (Version 1/29/90)



          Abstract:
          ---------

          This note  describes the  MD4  message  digest  algorithm.    The
          algorithm takes as input an input message of arbitrary length and
          produces  as   output  a  128-bit  ``fingerprint''  or  ``message
          digest''  of   the  input.   It  is   conjectured  that   it   is
          computationally infeasible  to produce  two messages  having  the
          same message  digest, or  to produce  any message  having a given
          prespecified target  message digest.   The  MD4 algorithm is thus
          ideal for digital signature applications, where a large file must
          be ``compressed'' in a secure manner before being signed with the
          RSA public-key cryptosystem.

          The MD4  algorithm  is  designed  to  be  quite  fast  on  32-bit
          machines.    On  a  SUN  Sparc  station,  it  runs  at  1,100,000
          bytes/second.     On  a  DEC  MicroVax  II,  it  runs  at  70,000
          bytes/second.   In addition,  the MD4  algorithm does not require
          any large  substitution tables;  the algorithm can be coded quite
          compactly.


[Ed. Due to the length of this paper, I've placed it on the
VIRUS-L/comp.virus document archive at cert.sei.cmu.edu, where it is
available for anonymous FTP.  The filename is:
pub/virus-l/docs/md4.rsa.paper.]

          (C) Copyright 1989, 1990 RSA Data Security, Inc.
          All rights reserved.