Path: csiph.com!v102.xanadu-bbs.net!xanadu-bbs.net!feeder.erje.net!eu.feeder.erje.net!news.swapon.de!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Ben Bacarisse Newsgroups: comp.programming Subject: Re: bike locks and encryption Date: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 11:39:09 +0100 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 15 Message-ID: <87sij0upte.fsf@bsb.me.uk> References: <144e68c8-e88b-47a4-af78-8129ad2557c7@googlegroups.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Injection-Info: mx02.eternal-september.org; posting-host="017616aa25f81ec581c44d76d61ba2f3"; logging-data="19013"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1+5Ogx81pvhne6pTy66iLsPZ7xJPLsQjgw=" Cancel-Lock: sha1:K8yTmNReo79QzriLMsKd8jQOYgM= sha1:ab0WCOnddnacm0Oqp9fXH2lQrVc= X-BSB-Auth: 1.1fdae7e368b39d3a5a95.20141007113909BST.87sij0upte.fsf@bsb.me.uk Xref: csiph.com comp.programming:4809 RichD writes: > Something occurred to me recntly - bicycle locks > as examples of one way functions, so useful in > encryption. That is, easy to compute in encryption, > but intractable for decrytion, lacking the key. I don't think that's a good analogy for a one-way function. Although all one-way functions have, in some very abstract sense, a "key" (the function's inverse is, I suppose, a key) they are not, usually, invertable with some small amount of data acting as a key. -- Ben.