EFF DES cracker

In <a href="/facts/Cryptography/e94PEVau">cryptography</a>, the EFF DES cracker (nicknamed "Deep Crack") is a machine built by the <a href="/facts/Electronic_Frontier_Foundation/vCy44tuo">Electronic Frontier Foundation</a> (EFF) in 1998, to perform a <a href="/facts/Brute_force_attack/TXl8pkfb">brute force</a> search of the <a href="/facts/Data_Encryption_Standard/STfBjTGb">Data Encryption Standard</a> (DES) cipher's <a href="/facts/Key_space_(cryptography)/1amrJ13L">key space</a> – that is, to decrypt an encrypted message by trying every possible key. The aim in doing this was to prove that the <a href="/facts/Key_size/1amrJ13L">key size</a> of DES was not sufficient to be secure.
Detailed technical data of this machine, including <a href="/facts/Block_diagram/PljzAqq6">block diagrams</a>, <a href="/facts/Circuit_schematics/Vqk3udN0">circuit schematics</a>, <a href="/facts/VHDL/H6Exdjfs">VHDL</a> source code of the custom chips and its <a href="/facts/Emulator/FMHE8qDj">emulator</a>, have all been published in the book Cracking DES. Its <a href="/facts/Public_domain_license/eCV1aTHq">public domain license</a> allows <a href="/facts/Open-source_hardware/UgCHeVsm">everyone to freely copy, use, or modify its design</a>. To avoid the <a href="/facts/Export_of_cryptography_from_the_United_States/CH5yLRYo">export regulation on cryptography by the US Government</a>, the <a href="/facts/Source_code/o9J6Jv23">source code</a> was distributed not in electronic form but as a hardcopy book, of which the open publication is protected by the <a href="/facts/First_Amendment/1hNSoIvG">First Amendment</a>. Machine-readable metadata is provided to facilitate the transcription of the code into a computer via <a href="/facts/Optical_Character_Recognition/kdTyxa1l">OCR</a> by readers.

EFF DES cracker open-in-new

EFF DES cracker