@(#)$eterna: crypto,v 1.6 2003/07/12 06:46:25 mrg Exp $

ircII crypto implementation notes.


the ircII code had traditionally contained a very simple (and thus
useless) cipher called "SED" for simple encrypted data.  as it is
quite desirable to talk to others via a secure, private channel,
ircII now comes with a strong cipher, CAST-128.  the /encrypt
command has been enhanced to take -cast or -sed switches to choose
which (the build process will pick a default, cast if it exists,
otherwise sed).

ircII sends encrypted messages via ctcp messages.  this has several
features:  it uses an existing ircII (and beyond) protocol to send
messages that may require special quoting due to full 8 bit data
output from the cryptography routines.  see the "ctcp" paper in the
same directory this paper is for details on ctcp quoting.



cipher notes: cast-128

the cast 128 specification takes 64 bit at a time to encrypt, which
requires that strings be padded to 64bit boundaries.  to avoid many
problems with "electronic codebook" mode, this cipher is implemented
with "cyclic block chaining" mode.  see "applied cryptography" by
bruce schenier for details on cipher modes.


cipher notes: rijndael

this cipher isn't working yet, sorry.


future directions:

it's likely that in the future, ircii will use a "CTCP CRYPTO", that
may contain various informations after this, before the data.

we'll also probably end up using openssl crypto to get all their
routines and ditching any private copies.
