NSA’s penetration of RSA security was two-pronged: researchers

Infiltrated: Two NSA tools exacerbated the RSA software's vulnerability. Photo: Reuters

Security industry pioneer RSA adopted not just one but two encryption tools developed by the US National Security Agency (NSA), greatly increasing the spy agency's ability to eavesdrop on some internet communications, according to researchers.

In December it was reported the NSA had paid RSA $US10 million ($10,800,000) to make a now-discredited cryptography system the default in software used by a wide range of internet and computer security programs. The system, called Dual Elliptic Curve, was a random-number generator, but it had a deliberate flaw or "back door" that allowed the NSA to crack the encryption.

A group of professors from Johns Hopkins, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Illinois and elsewhere now say they have discovered that a second NSA tool exacerbated the RSA software's vulnerability.

The professors found that the tool, known as the Extended Random extension for secure websites, could help crack a version of RSA's Dual Elliptic Curve software tens of thousands of times faster, according to an advance copy of their research shared with Reuters.

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While Extended Random was not widely adopted, the new research sheds light on how the NSA extended the reach of its surveillance under cover of advising companies on protection.

RSA, now owned by EMC, did not dispute the research when contacted by Reuters for comment. The company said it had not intentionally weakened security on any product and noted that Extended Random did not prove popular and had been removed from RSA's protection software in the past six months.

"We could have been more sceptical of NSA's intentions," RSA chief technologist Sam Curry said. "We trusted them because they are charged with security for the US government and US critical infrastructure."

Mr Curry declined to say if the government had paid RSA to incorporate Extended Random in its BSafe security kit, which also housed Dual Elliptic Curve.

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NSA's penetration of RSA security was two-pronged: researchers