amh@newcastle.ac.uk (Andrew Hilborne) (06/30/88)
There has been some talk of allowing Elm to make use of different encryption software, and even talk of a new header -- "XCRYPT:" (should that have been "X-CRYPT:" ?). It is probably worth mentioning at this point that RFC822 defines a header: ENCRYPTED: program [ key-index ] This indicates that the body of a message has been encrypted using a piece of software "program". The optional second parameter is intended to help in the selection of a suitable key. RFC822 states that names of programs used for encrytion are registered at the NIC; whether this prevents us from using the header with other names, or without checking to see if our names are registered, is not clear. I'm also unsure as to whether anybody would be upset at the use of the header to encrypt/decrypt only those parts of the message body surrounded by "[crypt]"/"[clear]" constructs. While I am on the subject, I rather assume that most people will only want to encrypt fairly small parts of their message, so a s/w implementation of DES would do. I have a PD DES program (like crypt(1)) which has passed the NSA triples test and which could be used. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ SENDER : "Andrew Hilborne" PHONE : +44 91 4901515 POST : MARI Ltd, Gateshead, NE8 1BP UUCP : <UK>!ukc!mari!amh