Depends.. I dont know much about PGP, but in my last math class we talked about the concept of public/private key encryption, and to break it, even with all that knoledge (with RSA anyway) involves factoring with 2 VERY large pime numbers. It is one of the few ideas that works better in practice than in theroy. Because in theory, somone would be able to do the factoring regardless of the size. In reality, even computers get to numbers of about 100 digits and simply stop being practical for most applications. If you want more info on this, I can dig out my textbook.... Jay On Saturday 22 September 2001 10:13 pm, you wrote: > /me wonders if you know the exact plain text and the encrypted text, how > 'hard' is it to extract the secret key? > > And you have the public key. Yikes. > > * spencer underground <spencer at autonomous.tv> [010922 21:53]: > > I guess I was just a *bit* over cautious with my previous post. Here is > > the public key. > > > > -- > > SpencerUnderground > > > > -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- > > Version: GnuPG v1.0.4 (GNU/Linux) > > Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org > > > > mQGiBDutIBcRBACNQRQtmqAetEqmyFdX5ZecgE4rsGZUDY0hBaeha7KdMR0Vb3Yl > > IRHaOB8XWIwFBgnGHxN8uA6xBCi70ZKrhg9vZMvMcnBg0DJVlMdakQxdOaLyehnP > > R+eexD2RG3fAAGK/8chz62bhVgVWzhxE6k+uTzScs6yrz5ZP9qANRJLc2wCgxahW > > TVplZH31LF6kAkQI3pAkxVMD/32yE9Z3rvPDNkoVJ82CsWAgD9A7w8eZsQ9SMTUw > > BWC97EIWZbogPt9FngGaGpM2ZsfrEinUMJeSuf/1u2b3LyFWCzxoLsBhQb7G2sF8 > > exDAr2iJ3dCGNeaVKfK+Ywp+0QN5d8PXiCNXISKhIdZUJMG59bb0gd2qBcH2upsq > > o4uBA/4wNw3I5uBQONwfIxI2NNOdAQPPCDakCKGIHExMZBECnK1L+1k+5K5qfo/5 > > 5y0l2JxY2Uuz4HuuLdK7+MGpmEXtSsgQHEWgv0oeTqTgV8/8Qbqg43a1P+luoiPd > > Siy9LAXOLI+zv7M11b1XMkKPgoc1a1+Q/nwZQmYUYQVxOHpAhbQ4U3BlbmNlclVu > > ZGVyZ3JvdW5kIChTZWN1cml0eS4uLikgPHNwZW5jZXJAYXV0b25vbW91cy50dj6I > > XQQTEQIAHQUCO60gFwUJAO1OAAULBwoDBAMVAwIDFgIBAheAAAoJELMgeN+/Auw4 > > Lm0AoIs5F4wn+WihU4nqwqZCUlVCsUl+AJwPRFWPGL9ziL4Ge+/XY/MgDfIYgbkB > > DQQ7rSAeEAQAjMJ26iHAPi4vvH+KOWVSjILOAW45xmhCHhsZrrQfRhdrGMQLfTmU > > F8hReKLQ3TvAjNVXplqZeOH6xJoWc0H6TKqxCh8cTn59EYmUmztIdng9+VPTSfIb > > p2v64hOMMCQBbND97CZrZYf7H2KIERMx2LT8b/UhQ1pVZn4nlVw/TTcAAwUD/AyE > > rJG2YoE0WVEGqXb77H15KHtJUziWsHexhBa6fAX/U53rVKa/PmM1hEOQKQhxXTrv > > 4cnPmdnvHYF1TxRAkqDFeBlAxfHDmtyvrPqjTx2viUIUTkzyDRZpmWScqyBm7puR > > 2sbcuqCXZwXC1V1OerPtSm84nMQVrAxAoOe49XBHiEwEGBECAAwFAjutIB4FCQDt > > TgAACgkQsyB4378C7DgUPACfTie4KewNiud/iOFQwOR0T5z5lpQAnRKlZWHDWsFA > > NHKcllz/fDh1ppFg > > =Re6l > > -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- -- Jay Kline list at slushpupie.com http://www.slushpupie.com -- Q: How do you know when you're in the <ethnic> section of Vermont? A: The maple sap buckets are hanging on utility poles.