distributedcomputing.info logo
 
Home   Forum   Wiki   Blog   News and Articles   Active Projects   Computing Platforms  
Upcoming Projects   Recently Completed Projects   Past Projects  
Tools   Development Platforms   Conferences   Parody and Fun Sites   Links   Politics
Teams   Books and Journals   FAQ   Link to Us



Active Distributed Computing Projects - Cryptography

These links take you to other project categories on this site:

Science   Life Sciences   Cryptography   Internet   Financial
Mathematics   Language   Art   Puzzles/Games   Miscellaneous   Distributed Human Projects
Collaborative Knowledge Bases   Charity

See the bottom of this page for a description of the icons on the page.

Project Information Project % Complete Major Supported Platforms
distributed.net RC5 Help distributed.net's RC5 project crack data encryption schemes (legally). distributed.net, which began in 1997, was the first well-known public distributed computing project and the RC5 project (specifically the RC5-32/12/7 (56-bit) project) was its first project. The RC5 project uses a brute-force search technique to find an encryption key, testing each possible key until it finds one which successfully decrypts a test message.

The project completed its RC5-64 project on September 25, 2002 (it found the winning key on July 14, 2002, after 1,757 days). The key was found with the work of 331,252 volunteers (and after 15,268,315,356,922,380,288 keys (82.8% of the keyspace) were tested). The RC5-72 project began on December 3, 2002 and is still active.

See the project's download page for the latest version of the client, and the project's pre-release page for versions which are available for testing before they become official versions.

See a log of an IRC discussion forum with some of the project coordinators which took place on September 28, 2002. They discussed the results of the RC5-64 project and future directions for distributed.net.

Use the RC5 key-rate calculator to see approximately what RC5 key-rate your CPU will produce. The calculator was created by CalicoJak in January, 2003, and was last updated on February 22, 2006.

RC5-72:
5.131% in 5,616 days

dialup-friendly

Windows 32
Linux
MacOS
Solaris
PS3

Free Rainbow Tables Free Rainbow Tables is generating Rainbow Tables to use for breaking hashes. The project's software client is based on Zhu Shuanglei's Project Rainbow Crack. Results from the project are compiled into complete tables, which are then submitted to freerainbowtables.com where they are available for free to anyone.

To participate in the project, download the DistrRTgen software client from the project website and run it. Free registration is required (only a username and password, no other information is collected). Version 3.26 of the GUI client is available for Windows as of June 9, 2008. Note that you need to have Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 installed to run the Windows client.

Join a discussion forum

ongoing;
cracked hashes;
uncracked hashes
Windows 32
Linux
SHA-1 Collision Search Graz is attempting to find collisions for the SHA-1 encryption algorithm, a popular algorithm which is used in many software applications such as email and secure web browsing." SHA-1 is a hashing algorithm which produces a string of letters and numbers (a "fingerprint") for a given text input. The project implements a dedicated attack, which "tries to exploit the inner working of the hash function" to find two different inputs which generate the same fingerprint. See about the project.

The project uses a BOINC-based client. See the BOINC platform information for the latest version of the BOINC client. The project runs the "SHA-1 Collision Search Graz" application within BOINC. Version 5.27 of the application is available for Windows and Linux as of August 8, 2007.

Join a discussion forum about this project.

credits dialup-friendly

Windows 32
Linux

Enigma@Home is a BOINC-based wrapper for the M4 message breaking project.

The project decrypted KEJNQ on May 6, 2010. The message is one of 22 previously unbroken German Army messages.

The project uses a BOINC-based client. See the BOINC platform information for the latest version of the BOINC client. Version 5.17 of the project's Enigma 0.76 application is available for Windows as of September 11, 2007. Version 5.20 of the application is available for Linux as of September 25, 2007. Version 5.22 of the project's Enigma 0.76b application is available for Windows and Linux as of August 24, 2008.

Join a discussion forum about this project.

credits dialup-friendly

Windows 32
Linux

RSA Lattice Siever (2.0) is cracking encrypted 512-bit Operating System signing keys for Texas Instruments' programmable calculators. Discovering these keys allows owners of these calculators to have complete control over the calculators and to install new operating systems on them. This project was created after an individual cracked the OS key for the TI-83+, mentioned here and here. The project is sieving TI-68k keys (keyti89, keyti89t, keyti92p, keyv200), TI-Z80 keys ("01", "02", "03", "08", "0A", "0101" and "0102") and k0A keys in order to discover keys for Texas Instruments' other programmable calculators. 11 keys remain to be discovered as of August 16, 2009.

The project uses a BOINC-based client. See the BOINC platform information for the latest version of the BOINC client. Version 1.07 of the project's GNFS Lattice Siever application is available for Windows and Linux as of August 13, 2009.

Join a discussion forum about this project.

unknown credits dialup-friendly

Windows 32
Linux

A5/1 Security Project is decrypting the A5/1 algorithm used in GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) to demonstrate the insecurity of the algorithm. Over 80% of the world's mobile phone market, used by 3 billion people in 200 countries, uses this encryption algorithm. If the project is successful, its results "will allow anyone with some RF equipment, patience, and a $500 laptop, the ability to decode GSM-based conversations and data transmissions." This project is a variation of one started by The Hackers Choice in early 2008. This project uses "more common hardware to generate the tables, namely graphics cards with GPGPU capability and attempt to build a distributed infrastructure of nodes where each node donates both a small portion of diskspace for a part of the table and some kind of fast hardware for the generation of and lookup in its own table."

To participate in the project, follow the instruction on the project's main page to download and compile the client application's source code and to get unique table parameters to process.

Subscribe to the project's mailing list.

ongoing Windows 32
Linux
gi john is "grid implemented john the ripper," a platform-independent, open source distributed password cracker. It cracks DES, MD5, Blowfish, and MySQL passwords. Project members can submit password hashes for the project to crack, and other project members earn points for cracking partial keyspaces for hashes. Members who earn enough points can use their points to "buy" a higher priority for hashes they want cracked faster. See more information about the project in its FAQ.

To participate in the project, download the pre-compiled Windows client or the source code and compile a client for your platform, then run the client according the instructions on the project website.

ongoing Windows 32
Linux
DNETC@HOME RC5 DNETC@HOME RC5 is a BOINC-based wrapper for distributed.net's RC5 project for computers with GPUs (i.e. graphics cards) supported by the distributed.net RC5 client application. Note that you must have one of the supported GPUs or you will not receive any work units through this project.

The project uses a BOINC-based client. See the BOINC platform information for the latest version of the BOINC client. See the project's applications page for the latest versions of its client applications.

Join a discussion forum about DNETC@HOME.

2,104,950,881 credits for all DNETC@HOME projects as of May 6, 2010 dialup-friendly

Windows 32

The following icons may appear in the Supported Platforms section of the table:
dialup-friendlythis project is good for users with dialup Internet access
paid projectthis is a for-pay project
Windows 32this project runs on the Windows 32-bit platform
Linuxthis project runs on the Linux platform
MacOSthis project runs on the Mac OS platform
Solaristhis project runs on the Solaris platform

Top...