Linhost

After visiting Mr. Bruce Schneier blog and reading his post “Blowfish on 24” I was unable to stop laughing, basically his encryption algorithm was mention on the show 24 but they mention Blowfish in a way that was stupid and ignorant. Here is how 24 explained Blowfish

They used Blowfish algorithm.

How can you tell?

By the tab on the file headers.

Can you decrypt it?

CTU has a proprietary algorithm. It shouldn’t take that long. We’ll start by trying to hack the password. Let’s start with the basics. Write down nicknames, birthdays, pets — anything you think he might have used.

Lets make some of the point clear “CTU has a proprietary algorithm”, come on why would they chose proprietary haven’t they heard of open source.

“It shouldn’t take that long”, I expect the terrorist to be trained in not using easy to guess passwords.

“Write down nicknames, birthdays, pets — anything you think he might have used”, That seems to be the only thing they got right start with obvious although I don’t expect some one with incriminating evidence to use an easy password (but people are stupid).

After all its TV and produced by FOX its not like they have to get it right. I just want to mention that TV shows and movies have the best looking hacking / cracking tools, they make everything look so easy no command line needed. Summary for Blowfish.

Schneier designed Blowfish as a general-purpose algorithm, intended as a replacement for the aging DES and free of the problems associated with other algorithms. At the time, many other designs were proprietary, encumbered by patents or kept as government secrets. Schneier has stated that, “Blowfish is unpatented, and will remain so in all countries. The algorithm is hereby placed in the public domain, and can be freely used by anyone.”