iFolder File Encryption Methods
Articles and Tips: qna
01 Jul 2003
Q.
Is there any in-depth technical information on the blowfish encryption used to send the files over the Net and store them on the server with iFolder? I have a very picky security sensitive organization who wants to know what's under the hood.
Fidgeting with iFolder
A.
Dear Fidgeting: I know where you are coming from on this question. Rest assured, the blowfish algorithm is a very good one. Just reference Counterpane's website. (Counterpane is a security-minded company that is headed by Bruce Schneier as its Founder and CTO.)
Quoting from Counterpane's Web site on Blowfish: "Blowfish is a symmetric block cipher that can be used as a drop-in replacement for DES or IDEA. It takes a variable-length key, from 32 bits to 448 bits, making it ideal for both domestic and exportable use. Blowfish was designed in 1993 by Bruce Schneier as a fast, free alternative to existing encryption algorithms. Since then it has been analyzed considerably, and it is slowly gaining acceptance as a strong encryption algorithm. Blowfish is unpatented and license-free, and is available free for all uses.
The original Blowfish paper was presented at the First Fast Software Encryption workshop in Cambridge, UK (proceedings published by Springer-Verlag, Lecture Notes in Computer Science #809, 1994) and the April 1994 issue of Dr. Dobb's Journal. "Blowfish--One Year Later" appeared in the September 1995 issue of Dr. Dobb's Journal.
Many cryptographers have examined Blowfish, although there are few published results. Serge Vaudenay examined weak keys in Blowfish; there is a class of keys that can be detected--although not broken--in Blowfish variants of 14 rounds or less. Vincent Rijmen's Ph.D. thesis includes a second-order differential attack on 4-round Blowfish that cannot be extended to more rounds.
Everyone is welcome to download Blowfish and use it in their application. There are no rules about its use, although I would appreciate being notified of any commercial applications using the product so that I can list them on this website at http://www.counterpane.com/blowfish.html.
* Originally published in Novell AppNotes
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