<story><title>Juniper: Recording Some Twitter Conversations</title><url>https://www.imperialviolet.org/2015/12/19/juniper.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>tptacek</author><text>Stop and consider for a second how crazy this page is:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;kb.juniper.net&amp;#x2F;InfoCenter&amp;#x2F;index?page=content&amp;amp;id=KB28205&amp;amp;pmv=print&amp;amp;actp=LIST&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;kb.juniper.net&amp;#x2F;InfoCenter&amp;#x2F;index?page=content&amp;amp;id=KB28...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Dual_EC is a PKRNG. PKRNGs are a kind of crypto random number generator (CSPRNG). All the crypto keys in modern cryptosystems come from CSPRNGS.&lt;p&gt;PKRNGs are special because they embed a public key in the generator. Anyone who holds the corresponding private key can &amp;quot;decrypt&amp;quot; the output of the RNG and recover the generator&amp;#x27;s &amp;quot;state&amp;quot;; once they have that, they can fast-forward and rewind through it to find all the other numbers (read: crypto keys) it can generate.&lt;p&gt;Juniper is here saying that they recognize the problem of Dual_EC --- it&amp;#x27;s a PKRNG, and the USG may hold its private key.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;So instead, they generated their own private keys and embedded them in the CSPRNGs of the VPNs they sold to customers&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;p&gt;WAT?&lt;p&gt;But see also this thread:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=10764359&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=10764359&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Juniper: Recording Some Twitter Conversations</title><url>https://www.imperialviolet.org/2015/12/19/juniper.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>unchocked</author><text>Is this going to become the primary case study on why back doors are a bad idea?&lt;p&gt;If so, it&amp;#x27;s important to get a quality layman&amp;#x27;s explanation out fast, and this is the framework of a great one.</text></comment>