Looking for a Triple DES implementation

[David Kramer]

Robert L Krawitz wrote:
> The point is that code reviews by other people who can read code but
> who don't understand the problem domain *in detail* aren't helpful.
> Knowing what the code does isn't useful if you don't understand what
> the entire system has to do.

You are preaching to the choir.  I am a big Agile guy.  That's not the
way things work in my current company, though, and that's not going to
change.

>    Not understanding security code is a BIG no-no, and IMNSHO should be
>    a firable offense.  If you don't understand, you should ask someone
>    or find someone who does.   Granted, I've been in the software security
>    industry since before such an industry existed (I've been in Security
>    since 1990), so I'm perhaps a little biased.  I've been paid upwards of
>    $400/hr to fix these kinds of problems after companies have lost real
>    money due to poor use of cryptography.

I am walking a fine line here because I would rather not talk ill of my
company or my co-worker.  I am also in a different group than he is, but
I plan on bringing this up with the appropriate people.  There are
several problems here that I hope to address; the code is just a small
part of it.

> It's one of those specialties that really demands an expert who
> understands security in the entire depth.  A strong encryption
> algorithm used improperly may be hardly better than nothing at all;
> ECB when you need to encrypt more data than the length of a code
> symbol is basically a glorified ROT13 (a simple substitution cypher).
> I say this as one who is an experienced software engineer, but not a
> security expert -- I would certainly not trust myself with security
> code.

I've done some limited, low-risk crypto work.  I've implemented
weak(ish) crypto in non-critical applications (eg: the crypto is more
like a way of generating a hash than keeping something secret), but even
then I outlined the flaws so anyone else reading the code knew them.

This talk of absolutes and black and white is reminiscent of the MySQL
discussion that is thankfully winding down.


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