Advanced Wireless Technologies Hardware Cracks DES Encryption Code in Record Time

Business Wire, July 20, 1998

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 20, 1998--

Partnership between AWT, Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Cryptography Research Gets Results With First-Ever, Dedicated Computer

Hardware developed by Advanced Wireless Technologies Inc. has successfully read a DES-encrypted message to win an industry-wide decryption competition.

The DES Cryptogram Challenge (see below) commenced on Monday, July 13. Advanced Wireless Technologies' specially built decryption computer broke the code in 56 hours, making it the fastest computer in the non-classified world dedicated to this task.

Advanced Wireless Technologies (AWT) provides Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) design services and quick production turnaround for a wide range of communication technologies. Working in partnership with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Cryptography Research, Inc. on this complex project, AWT demonstrated their engineering team's advanced solution skills.

"The collaboration with Cryptography Research was invaluable to our success," said Si Nguyen, president & CEO of AWT. "Their strong background in security coding perfectly complemented our design work. It was like fitting two halves together in a puzzle."

While DES decryption competitions have taken place several times, AWT's achievement marks the first decryption by a machine dedicated to the task. One notable DES code breaking effort took 78,000 computers, linked by the Internet, and 96 days to crack the code.

AWT's computer, named the DES Cracker, completed its task with a combination of hardware and software designed solely for decryption, and housed in six Sun workstation chassis. Each workstation holds four to five double-sided printed circuit boards, and each board is equipped with 64 ASICs.

Finally, each ASIC holds 24 DES "engines," each working to determine the key to the encryption code. In all, the DES Cracker comprises over 35,000 engines, all hunting simultaneously for the key.

When an engine finds a possible key, the DES Cracker's software evaluates the engine's data, using a search algorithm developed by Cryptography Research. The hardware identifies likely solutions, which the software then validates. Through this constantly cycling progression of search/evaluate/test, the DES key was found.

"The DES contest was only a fraction of the DES Cracker project," said Paul Kocher, president of Cryptography Research. "AWT's ability to overcome the many design challenges in implementing the DES Cracker demonstrated formidable engineering."

Monday's competition, sponsored by encryption/decryption specialists RSA Data Security, was held as a dare to members of the cryptography industry -- and as something of a taunt to the supporters of DES (Data Encryption Standard).

"AWT and Cryptography Research built us an excellent machine with a budget of about $200,000," said John Gilmore, cofounder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "EFF's goal -- to demonstrate low cost, rapid DES decryption -- was admirably achieved."

Individuals interested in obtaining their own DES Cracker, or in pursuing another ASIC project, are invited to contact AWT at 408-727-5780. Photos of the DES Cracker will be available upon request.

The DES Cryptogram Challenge

DES encrypts a confidential message into scrambled output under the control of a secret key. Only recipients who have that key can read the message. Since a DES encryption key, or password, is 56 bits long, there are 2 to the 56th power possible keys -- or 72 quadrillion possible solutions.

The challenge posed by RSA, and solved handily by Advanced Wireless Technologies' DES Cracker, is to produce that key. The scope of this challenge is huge: if it takes one second to test a possible key, then it would take, on average, more than a billion years to find the right key. AWT's DES Cracker accomplished this task in only 56 hours.

About AWT

Founded in 1994, Advanced Wireless Technologies Inc. is dedicated to providing Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) and board-level design solutions for high-tech industries, at the highest quality and the lowest cost.

The company can participate in any development phase from specifications definition to design implementation and prototype testing. AWT also provides off-the-shelf satellite receivers and communications-related products for use in a wide range of applications. Visit their website: www.awti.com

About Cryptography Research

Cryptography Research Inc. is a San Francisco-based company that provides consulting, design, education, and analysis services. Cryptography Research provided the cryptographic design and software for the DES Cracker system. Visit their website: www.cryptography.com

About Electronic Frontier Foundation

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is a nonprofit public interest organization protecting rights and promoting liberty online. It was founded in 1990 by Mitchell Kapor, John Perry Barlow, and John Gilmore. EFF has documented the DES Cracker project in a book, "Cracking DES, Secrets of Encryption Research, Wiretap Politics & Chip Design." For more information, visit their website: www.eff.org