Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by andy112 4570 days ago
If they were to release the plaintext of Alice's (or, in their case, Paul's) message, wouldn't that include the secret email address?

FWIW, I agree the contest is a sham for the reasons moxie & others listed here and elsewhere.
2 comments
nwh 4570 days ago
The contest is only set up that way to make it look more secure, there's really no reason that you would have to prove yourself in that way. If there's an actual cryptographic break then a researcher can prove it without all of the "send email to this address" nonsense.
link
Guvante 4569 days ago
Two alternatives

* Have a special message that does not contain the email address and makes it's contents public. * Take whatever the first message happened to be and replace any characters in the email address with the character X and release that. Giving away the length of the email address wouldn't do anyone any good.

link