[michaellosee]

When I saw 1 trillion guesses per second I immediately wondered what algorithm was being referenced. My single GTX 780 hash performance varies wildly by algorithm. A few numbers:

  NTLM - 1.2 billion/sec
  MD5(Wordpress)- 600 million/sec
  bcrypt - 1,000/sec

1 trillion hashes/sec on a key stretching algorithm like bcrypt would be pretty horrific and might require quantum computing, while the same performance on MD5 might be achieved with <50k in hardware (very rough estimates).

I've heard rumors of storage technology that can store thousands of petabytes in a home appliance form factor. With that can kind of storage it would make sense to just start making salted rainbow tables. Even without fabled hardware, the Bluffdale NSA facility might have the capacity for it. I haven't even done napkin-based calculations yet to see if this is possible, so if anyone has some idea please speak up :-)

edit: formatting

[ynniv]

How does gpg encrypt private keys?

[michaellosee]

There are several symmetric encryption algorithms to choose from, the default is CAST5 (according to this[1] random mail post). This would only be used to encrypt the private key on disk.

Now I'm curious of the methods of decrypting data in transit. Does the NSA have the tools to break PKI based encryption at 1 trillion guesses/sec? I have some wild guesses, but if anyone knows I'd love to hear it.

[1]http://lists.gnupg.org/pipermail/gnupg-users/2010-October/03...