Is GCHQ/CESG Invention of PK True?

6 Ocotber 1999: Add link to Whitfield Diffie response and Richard Snow message.

6 October 1999

See related excerpt from Simon Singh's The Code Book, "The Alternative History of Public-Key Cryptography": http://cryptome.org/ukpk-alt.htm

See related paper by James Ellis, GCHQ, "The Story of Non-Secret Encryption": http://jya.com/ellisdoc.htm and URL below.

To: ukcrypto@maillist.ox.ac.uk
Subject: Re: Simon Singh and Cliff Cocks Talk
Date: Wed, 06 Oct 1999 09:35:14 +0100
From: Ross Anderson <Ross.Anderson@cl.cam.ac.uk>

Andrew Brown <alloneword@dial.pipex.com>:

> what's this about GCHQ inventing public key crypto?

An interesting question for the press is whether, and if so to what extent, the documents supporting this claim were forged. This rumour has been knocking about for a year or two; we might as well drag it out into the sunlight and see what Authority has to say.

The relevant documents purport to be CESG tech reports. Yet sources say that at least some of the alleged inventors were working in GCHQ at the time; in particular, that their boss was Shaun Wylie (a former Trinity Hall fellow, famous for Hilton and Wylie's `Homology Theory'). In fact, it is not at all clear that CESG even existed in 1970 under that name (or at all).

So one might expect that the original documents (if any) would have said GCHQ - or perhaps even `NSA Technical Journal' - but the publicly released documents say CESG.

The motive for the forgery may be relatively innocent (by the standards of the espionage trade). In recent years, bureaucrats have held to the fiction that GCHQ doesn't exist while CESG does, or at the very least that they are quite separate organisations. For example, the CESG response to the first draft of our paper attacking Cloud Cover took exception to our describing it as `the GCHQ protocol'. The purpose of this appears to be to obscure two facts - that CESG is a part of GCHQ and the director of the latter is the boss of the director of the former. A wider realisation that the fox was in charge of the henhouse might inhibit CESG's efforts to market its `IT Security Healthcheck' services to UK plc.

So, the rumour-mongers ask, what else has been changed? There would presumably have been more references in the original documents, but redacted as they pointed to classified material. What else?

If any list member goes to this talk, it might be instructive to ask Cocks whether he can offer us any information or assurances that might quell this obviously malicious and paranoid gossip :-)

Ross

Date: Wed, 6 Oct 1999 15:19:08 +0100
To: ukcrypto@maillist.ox.ac.uk
From: Richard Snow <C.R.Snow@ncl.ac.uk>
Subject: RE: Simon Singh and Cliff Cocks Talk

At 13:48 +0100 6/10/99, ADDYMAN, Caspar, GFM wrote:

>Ross Anderson wrote:
>
>>An interesting question for the press is whether, and if so to what
>>extent, the documents supporting this claim were forged. This rumour
>>has been knocking about for a year or two; we might as well drag it
>>out into the sunlight and see what Authority has to say.
>
>[snip]
>
>My follow-up question is why didn't they patent it?
>
>Since the whole point is that it is 'non-secret' and knowing the mechanism
>does not compromise its utility, why be afraid of publishing it?

You have to remember that this work was done in the early '70s when even the *existence* of GCHQ was supposedly secret.

With regard to the question of whether the documents were forged, Whit Diffie made no reference to this possibility when he spoke at UCL in April. As I said in my previous posting, Diffie knew about this work, having had several conversations about it with Ellis in the early '80s. Although it was still secret, Diffie seems to have become aware of it through some contact of his in the NSA. The NSA, unsurprisingly given their relationship with GCHQ, already knew about the Ellis/Cocks/Williamson work.

... Dick Snow.

From: Alan Ramsbottom <ACR@als.co.uk>
To: "'ukcrypto@maillist.ox.ac.uk'" <ukcrypto@maillist.ox.ac.uk>
Subject: RE: Simon Singh and Cliff Cocks Talk
Date: Tue, 5 Oct 1999 15:25:38 +0100

> From: Andrew Brown [mailto:alloneword@dial.pipex.com]
> what's this about GCHQ inventing public key crypto?

For the various papers, see:

http://www.cesg.gov.uk/about/nsecret.htm

Naturally, this led to questions about the origin of RSA. Ron Rivest denied it had any influence in this slightly heated exchange:

http://www.inet-one.com/cypherpunks/dir.1999.04.05-1999.04.11/msg00240.html

-Alan-

Date: Tue, 5 Oct 1999 21:43:03 +0100
From: lists@notatla.demon.co.uk
To: ukcrypto@maillist.ox.ac.uk
Subject: Re: Simon Singh and Cliff Cocks Talk

Andrew Brown <alloneword@dial.pipex.com>

> what's this about GCHQ inventing public key crypto?

December 1997 stuff - these 2 posts from Peter Gutmann.

mail -s cryptography arcbot@notatla.demon.co.uk << END
grep cocks
grep non-secret
get 88232561207378@cs26.cs.auckland.ac.nz
get 88658904520764@cs26.cs.auckland.ac.nz

END

Date: Tue, 5 Oct 1999 11:38:48 +0100
From: Andrew Brown <alloneword@dial.pipex.com>
To: Nick Fortescue <ukcrypto@maillist.ox.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: Simon Singh and Cliff Cocks Talk

On Monday, October 04, 1999, at 4:40:22 PM, Nick Fortescue wrote:

NF> FYI,

NF> Simon Singh & Cliff Cocks (the guy from GCHQ who invented public key
NF> cryptography) are giving a talk at the Cheltenham Festival of Literature
NF> on Saturday 16th October.

what's this about GCHQ inventing public key crypto?

Andrew mailto:alloneword@dial.pipex.com

Date: Mon, 4 Oct 1999 16:40:22 +0100 (BST)
From: Nick Fortescue <nickf@cre.canon.co.uk>
To: "'ukcrypto@maillist.ox.ac.uk'" <ukcrypto@maillist.ox.ac.uk>,
"'BletchleyPark@Cranfield.ac.uk'" <BletchleyPark@cranfield.ac.uk>
Subject: Simon Singh and Cliff Cocks Talk

FYI,

Simon Singh & Cliff Cocks (the guy from GCHQ who invented public key cryptography) are giving a talk at the Cheltenham Festival of Literature on Saturday 16th October.

http://www.cheltenhamfestivals.co.uk

The text below is a cut and paste from the Web site. I'm not associated with the festival or either of the speakers.

Nick

Town Hall 2-3pm GBP 6(5)

Simon Singh, author of The Code Book and the best-selling Fermats Last Theorem, discusses how codes and ciphers have evolved through the centuries as a result of the struggle between codemakers and codebreakers.

He is joined by Clifford Cocks from CESG at GCHQ who will describe the greatest breakthrough in codes this century, made in Cheltenham, but kept secret until recently.

</web text>

Nick Fortescue E: nickf@cre.canon.co.uk
Voice : +44 1483 448885 Fax: +44 1483 448845
Canon Research Centre Europe Ltd, 1 Occam Court, Occam Road,
Surrey Research Park, Guildford, Surrey. GU2 5YJ U.K.