distributed.net

A coordinated effort was started in February 1997 by Earle Ady and Christopher G. Stach II of Hotjobs.com and New Media Labs, as an effort to break the RC5-56 portion of the RSA Secret-Key Challenge, a 56-bit encryption algorithm that had a $10,000 USD prize available to anyone who could find the key. Unfortunately, this initial effort had to be suspended as the result of SYN flood attacks by participants upon the server.{{cite news|url=https://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,2350,00.html|first=James|last=Glave|title=Macho Computing at Root of RSA Contest Flap|publisher=Wired|date=1997-03-03}}

A new independent effort, named distributed.net, was coordinated by Jeffrey A. Lawson, Adam L. Beberg, and David C. McNett along with several others who would serve on the board and operate infrastructure. By late March 1997 new proxies were released to resume RC5-56 and work began on enhanced clients. A cow head was selected as the icon of the application and the project's mascot.{{cite web|url=http://faq.distributed.net/?file=80|title=What's with all the cows?|publisher=distributed.net}}

The RC5-56 challenge was solved on October 19, 1997, after 250 days. The correct key was "0x532B744CC20999" and the plaintext message read "The unknown message is: It's time to move to a longer key length".{{Cite web|url=http://www.distributed.net/RC5|title=distributed.net: Project RC5|website=www.distributed.net|access-date=2019-04-23}}

The RC5-64 challenge was solved on July 14, 2002, after 1,757 days. The correct key was "0x63DE7DC154F4D039" and the plaintext message read "The unknown message is: Some things are better left unread".

The search for Optimal Golomb Rulers (OGRs) of order 24, 25, 26, 27 and 28 were completed by distributed.net on 13 October 2004, 25 October 2008, 24 February 2009, 19 February 2014, and 23 November 2022 respectively.{{Cite web|url=http://blogs.distributed.net/2004/11/01/10/24/nugget/|title=distributed.net: staff blogs – 2004 – November – 01|language=en-US|access-date=2019-04-23}}{{Cite web|url=http://blogs.distributed.net/2008/10/25/23/14/bovine/|title=distributed.net: staff blogs – 2008 – October – 25|language=en-US|access-date=2019-04-23}}{{Cite web|url=http://blogs.distributed.net/2009/02/24/17/26/bovine/|title=distributed.net: staff blogs – 2009 – February – 24|language=en-US|access-date=2019-04-23}}{{Cite web|url=http://blogs.distributed.net/2014/02/25/16/09/mikereed/|title=distributed.net: staff blogs – 2014 – February – 25|language=en-US|access-date=2019-04-23}}{{Cite web|url=https://blogs.distributed.net/2022/11/23/03/28/bovine/|title=distributed.net: staff blogs – 2022 – November – 23|language=en-US|access-date=2022-12-29}}

"DNETC" is the file name of the software application which users run to participate in any active distributed.net project. It is a command line program with an interface to configure it, available for a wide variety of platforms.{{Cite web|url=http://www.distributed.net/Download_clients|title=distributed.net: Client Downloads|website=www.distributed.net|access-date=2019-04-22}} distributed.net refers to the software application simply as the "client". {{As of|2019|April|df=}}, volunteers running 32-bit Windows with AMD FireStream enabled GPUs have contributed the most processing power to the RC5-72 project{{Cite web|url=http://stats.distributed.net/misc/platformlist.php?project_id=8&view=tco|title=stats.distributed.net - RC5-72 CPU Participation|website=stats.distributed.net|access-date=2019-04-23}} and volunteers running 64-bit Linux have contributed the most processing power to the OGR-28 project.{{Cite web|url=http://stats.distributed.net/misc/platformlist.php?project_id=28&view=tco|title=stats.distributed.net - OGR-28 CPU Participation|website=stats.distributed.net|access-date=2019-04-23}}

Portions of the source code for the client are publicly available, although users are not permitted to distribute modified versions themselves.{{cite web|url=http://distributed.net/source/|title=Public source code|publisher=distributed.net|access-date=2010-01-23|archive-date=2012-05-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120523202532/http://www.distributed.net/Source|url-status=dead}}

Distributed.net's RC5-72 project is available on the BOINC client through the Moo! Wrapper.{{cite web | url = http://moowrap.net/ | title = Moo! Wrapper | publisher = Moo! Wrapper | access-date = 2019-03-08}}

Image:Average RC5-72 production.png

In recent years, most of the work on the RC5-72 project has been submitted by clients that run on the GPU of modern graphics cards. Although the project had already been underway for almost 6 years when the first GPUs began submitting results, as of January 2025, GPUs represent 88% of all completed work units,{{cite web |url=http://stats.distributed.net/misc/platformlist.php?project_id=8&view=tco |title=RC5-72 / CPU Participation |publisher=distributed.net |access-date=27 May 2023}} and complete more than 95% of all work units each day.

• NVIDIA

:In late 2007, work began on the implementation of new RC5-72 cores designed to run on NVIDIA CUDA-enabled hardware, with the first completed work units reported in November 2008. On high-end NVIDIA video cards at the time, upwards of 600 million keys/second was observed{{cite web|url=http://cgi.distributed.net/speed/query.php?cputype=all&arch=4&contest=rc572&multi=3|title=Client Speeds Database (GPU RC5-72 search)|publisher=distributed.net|access-date=27 February 2014}} For comparison, a 2008-era high-end single CPU working on RC5-72 achieved about 50 million keys/second, representing a very significant advancement for RC5-72. As of January 2025, CUDA clients have completed almost 11% of all work on the RC5-72 project, and perform about 9% of the work each day.

• AMD / ATI

:Similarly, near the end of 2008, work began on the implementation of new RC5-72 cores designed to run on AMD FireStream-enabled hardware. Some of the products in the Radeon HD 5000 and 6000 series provided key rates in excess of 1.8 billion keys/second.{{cite web |url=https://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=19780660&sid=19c2e0958c0248dfd2cae221f5e737c1#p19780660 |title=Benchmark results for Radeon HD 5870 |publisher=MrJackson2000 |date=April 1, 2010}} As of January 2025, FireStream clients have completed over 21% of all work on the RC5-72 project. Daily production from FireStream clients has dropped below 0.5% as the majority of AMD GPU contributors now use the OpenCL client.

• OpenCL

:An OpenCL client entered beta testing in late 2012 and was released in 2013. As of January 2025, OpenCL clients have completed more than 56% of all work on the RC5-72 project, and now perform almost 86% of the work each day. No breakdown of OpenCL production by GPU manufacturer exists, as AMD, NVIDIA, and Intel GPUs all support OpenCL.{{Cite web |date=2010-01-16 |title=[TEST] GPU Computing - GeForce and Radeon OpenCL Test (Part 3) {{!}} Geeks3D |url=https://www.geeks3d.com/20100116/test-gpu-computing-geforce-and-radeon-opencl-test-part-3/ |access-date=2023-09-05 |language=en-US}}

; Current

• RSA Lab's 72-bit RC5 Encryption Challenge started 3 December 2002 — In progress, 13.228% complete as of 4 January 2025{{cite web |title=RC5-72 Overall Project Stats |url=https://stats.distributed.net/projects.php?project_id=8 |access-date=4 January 2025 |publisher=distributed.net}} (although RSA Labs has discontinued sponsorship)

; Cryptography

• RSA Lab's 56-bit RC5 Encryption Challenge — Completed 19 October 1997 (after 250 days and 47% of the key space tested).
• RSA Lab's 56-bit DES-II-1 Encryption Challenge — Completed 23 February 1998 (after 39 days){{cite web|url=http://lists.distributed.net/pipermail/announce/1998/000037.html|title=The secret message is...|author=David C. McNett|date=24 February 1998|publisher=distributed.net|access-date=27 February 2014|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304000105/http://lists.distributed.net/pipermail/announce/1998/000037.html|url-status=dead}}
• RSA Lab's 56-bit DES-II-2 Encryption Challenge — Ended 15 July 1998 (found independently by the EFF DES cracker after 2.5 days){{cite web|url=https://w2.eff.org/Privacy/Crypto/Crypto_misc/DESCracker/HTML/19980716_eff_des_faq.html#doesitwork|title=The Electronic Frontier Foundation DES Cracker FAQ|date=16 July 1998|publisher=EFF|access-date=27 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170507231657/https://w2.eff.org/Privacy/Crypto/Crypto_misc/DESCracker/HTML/19980716_eff_des_faq.html#doesitwork|archive-date=7 May 2017|url-status=dead}}
• RSA Lab's 56-bit DES-III Encryption Challenge — Completed 19 January 1999 (after 22.5 hours with the help of the EFF DES cracker)
• CS-Cipher Challenge — Completed 16 January 2000 (after 60 days and 98% of the key space tested).{{cite web|url=https://www.distributed.net/CSC|title=CSC project page|date=16 January 2000|publisher=distributed.net|access-date=25 February 2016}}
• RSA Lab's 64-bit RC5 Encryption Challenge — Completed 14 July 2002 (after {{age in days|1997|10|22|2002|7|14}} days and 83% of the key space tested).{{cite web|url=http://www.distributed.net/History|title=History & Timeline|publisher=distributed.net}}

; Golomb rulers

• Optimal Golomb Rulers (OGR-24) — Completed 13 October 2004{{cite web|url=https://blogs.distributed.net/2004/11/01/10/24/nugget/|title=distributed.net is proud to announce the completion of OGR-24! |date=2004-11-01}} (after {{age in days|2000|7|14|2004|10|13}} days, confirmed predicted best ruler)
• Optimal Golomb Rulers (OGR-25) — Completed 24 October 2008{{cite web|url=https://blogs.distributed.net/2008/10/25/23/14/bovine/|title=distributed.net is proud to announce the completion of OGR-25!|date=2008-10-25}} (after {{age in days|2000|8|1|2008|10|24}} days, confirmed predicted best ruler)
• Optimal Golomb Rulers (OGR-26) — Completed 24 February 2009{{cite web|url=https://blogs.distributed.net/2009/02/24/17/26/bovine/|title=Howdy all|date=2009-02-24}} (after {{age in days|2008|10|26|2009|2|24}} days, confirmed predicted best ruler)
• Optimal Golomb Rulers (OGR-27) — Completed 19 February 2014{{cite web|url=https://blogs.distributed.net/2014/02/|title=OGR-27 Completion Announcement|date=2014-02-25}} (after {{age in days|2009|02|23|2014|2|19}} days, confirmed predicted best ruler)
• Optimal Golomb Rulers (OGR-28) — Completed 23 November 2022{{cite web|url=https://blogs.distributed.net/2022/11/23/03/28/bovine/|title=Completion of OGR-28 project|date=2022-11-23}} (after {{age in days|2014|2|19|2022|11|23}} days, confirmed predicted best ruler)

• RSA Secret-Key Challenge
• Golomb Ruler
• DES Challenges
• Brute force attack
• Cryptanalysis
• Key size
• List of volunteer computing projects
• Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing

{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

• [http://www.distributed.net/ Official website]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Distributed.Net}}

Category:Cryptographic attacks

Category:Volunteer computing projects

Category:Charities based in the United States

Category:Organizations established in 1997

Category:Articles which contain graphical timelines