the last News from Stefan Zakarias ([email protected]):Tuesday, 23rd. June, 1998:
Released FULL Archive of PGP5GUI v1.7.4 (beta)...
Including 'C' (SAS/C) Source Code!
Well, that's a switch... I'm off to P.C. land!
I am arranging for someone (or a group, maybe) to takeover the porting and upkeep of Amiga PGP5...
I'll let you know what happens - Stay Tuned :-D
I will soon (1 to 2 weeks) be restarting work on the next version of AmigaPGP5...
Here is a list of the known bugs for AmigaPGP5.1:
BUG: PGPx says "randseed.bin not found" (but it really is found!).
CAUSE: The message is referring to the fact that it couldn't find a
'randseed.bin' file in the path pointed to by the environment variable
"PGPPATH". The stupid bit is that PGP5 then proceeds to look at your
'pgp.cfg' file and see if it can find a 'randseed.bin' file by looking
at what you specified in the 'RANDSEED =' line.
This doesn't happen if you have PGP2.x installed on your system
because PGP2.x usually puts it's 'randseed.bin file' in the
place specified by PGPPATH... PGP5 doesn't use it - it only
notes whether it's there or not and then (hopefully) uses the one
you specified in the 'pgp.cfg' file.
BUG: PGPV -m "ABinaryFile.asc" will sometimes crash your system.
CAUSE: The 'pager' routine cannot handle binary input - only text.
BUG: PGPE refuses to Encrypt some files >300Kb on '060 machines.
CAUSE: This is a weird one... If it's a text file, you simply change the text in
some way (e.g: add a blank space character) and it will encrypt. The weird
thing is that a file of exactly the same size, but different content, will
encrypt fine.
It really sounds like something is wrong with the '060 code compatibility
library on some machines... This problem isn't reproducible on '040, '030,
or '020 machines - that is why I think it is the code compatibility library
for some '060 machines.
BUG: Compared to PGP2.x, AmigaPGP5 is SUPPOSEDLY slow at everything.
CAUSE: I'm sorry people - unless you can PROVE to me differently, my timing
tests CONFIRM that PGP5 is slow at RSA Encryption, Key Listing and Key
Checking ONLY. You CANNOT compare the speed of DSS/D-H to anything
because it is a more SECURE algorithm and there is a lot more going on
under the hood!!!
(And there is NO other DSS/D-H cryptographic software on the Amiga)
On my system: RSA Key Generation on PGP5 is around 2 - 4 times faster, on
average, than PGP2.x. Decryption is about the same speed, and signing is
faster than PGP2.x. (A1200 - 030/40 Mhz/16Mb FastMem/3.1Roms)
PLEASE NOTE WELL:
I wouldn't use RSA anyway - It was found to be possibly insecure either now
or in the near future... That's why PGP Inc. had to develop the NEW algorithms.
(Diffie-Hellman, DSS, etc.)
Here is an excerpt from their 'Welcome' text file in the source code archive:
Our new code also implements new block ciphers for bulk encryption, offering
triple-DES and CAST as options, as well as continuing to support the IDEA
cipher from earlier versions of PGP. We also offer a new signature hash
algorithm, SHA-1, for computing digital signatures. The old hash algorithm,
MD5, developed by RSA Data Security Inc, has been discovered to have serious
weaknesses and is no longer recommended to make digital signatures. To use the
new SHA hash algorithm, users will have to use DSS as their signature algorithm,
because PGP's RSA signatures continue to use the MD5 hash for backward
compatability reasons.
BUG: Cannot correctly/easily compile PGP5 with SAS/C... And when you do, PGP5
either crashes or runs as though it were written in BASIC - it's that slow!
:-(
CAUSE: SAS/C 6.58 seems to have a problem dealing with the methods that are used
in UNIX file handling. Also, SAS/C does not have a 64bit integer type
(ULONG_LONG = unsigned 64 bit integer) arithmetic handling.
Saturday, 18th. April, 1998:
I finished the first stage of my MUI GUI for using AmigaPGP5. You can find it on
the Downloads page on this site.
Tuesday, 7th. April, 1998:
Updated the Web Pages again...
I removed the USA/Canada source code archive...
Apparently, it IS legal for USA/Canada residents to IMPORT and compile the source
code for their own PERSONAL use.
Added bug-fixed 'language50.txt' file to the Downloads page...
This one fixes a problem with PGPK complaining about 'missing strings' to generate
error messages.
Added the Amiga PGP5 AmigaGuide documents archive to the Downloads page...
This is the PGP5 documentation converted to AmigaGuide format by
Chris Page.
Monday, 6th. April, 1998:
Chris Page
([email protected])
has kindly donated some time and effort to create AmigaGuide versions of the
documents included with Amiga PGP5. Please spend a little of YOUR time and
effort and write an Email of thanks and appreciation to Chris...
Domenic Gebauer
([email protected])
has created a new Amiga PGP mailing list. So if you need help with Amiga PGP ONLY
(all versions), this may be a good place to ask for advice. I will be specifically
monitoring this list and I am willing to answer questions related mainly to Amiga PGP5
there... But I'm sure there will somebody on the list who can assist you with earlier
versions of Amiga PGP.
You can find out how to subscribe to Domenic's mailing list on the
Amiga PGP5 Links page.
Dave Borghuis
([email protected])
has put an Amiga PGP5 binaries archive on his Web Site. This is useful for those times
when it is difficult to download anything from my site (due to InterNet traffic, etc.).
You can find a link to download an Amiga PGP 5 binaries archive here at Dave's
Amiga PGP site
Wednesday, 25th. March, 1998:
Release of Amiga PGP 5.1 - USA/Canada Legal Version (No RSA functions).
Sunday, 22th. March, 1998:
Release of Amiga PGP 5.1 - International Version.
USA/Canada residents - Your archives should be on the Downloads page by 24th. March, 1998.
Friday, 20th. March, 1998:
Well, I don't seem to be getting any more bug-reports. It's time to put
everything together... Archives will hopefully be ready for downloading in the
next few days!
No 'beta time' warnings from now on... The UNIX source looks like it's stabilised.
Don't expect an update from this version for awhile (bug-reports permitting). I'll
be trying to locate the source of the speed bottleneck, particularly in the RSA
Encryption routines (they are strangely slow), and see if I can do something about
it. I hope that will be the next (long-standing) version.
(While doing that, I will also start on finishing off my GUI's for Amiga PGP5)
Thursday, 12th. March, 1998:
Created, compiled and tested a 'pure' FPU version which used the FPU for the
math-intensive stuff in the 'Big Number' library functions... Guess what...
It's not the 'Big Number' library that is slow - the bottleneck is somewhere else!
But where???
Friday, 6th. March, 1998:
I've finished porting the UNIX 'final' version to the Amiga. Not a lot was changed!
The key list output format for the KeyID now has the prefix of '0x' in front of the number.
Some work has been done on the 'BATCHMODE' option. (I haven't checked this mode yet)
When generating a Diffie-Hellman/DSS key, the option #4 keysize is now (correctly)
3072/1024 bits.
The 'language50.txt' file has been expanded and is no longer comaptible with
previous versions of PGP5.
Note that I am now using Heinz Wrobel's version of RCS to maintain the source code
archive. This means that version numbers will now use the 'RCS' format. For
example, 'v5.1.1.1' means Version 5.1, Revision 1.1
I have also created an '060 specific version of Amiga PGP5. It is currently being
beta-tested.
Lots of thanks go to Domenic Gebauer and Paul Gooch for testing the '060 version.
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