From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from pio-pvt-msa3.bahnhof.se (pio-pvt-msa3.bahnhof.se [79.136.2.42]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mail.server123.net (Postfix) with ESMTPS for ; Mon, 30 Mar 2020 22:25:06 +0200 (CEST) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pio-pvt-msa3.bahnhof.se (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5410D3F490 for ; Mon, 30 Mar 2020 22:25:05 +0200 (CEST) Received: from pio-pvt-msa3.bahnhof.se ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (pio-pvt-msa3.bahnhof.se [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id Pd-vSWl8dMWK for ; Mon, 30 Mar 2020 22:25:04 +0200 (CEST) Received: from localhost (unknown [155.4.14.33]) (Authenticated sender: mc592273) by pio-pvt-msa3.bahnhof.se (Postfix) with ESMTPA id 5BFDB3F3F5 for ; Mon, 30 Mar 2020 22:25:04 +0200 (CEST) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by localhost (Postfix) with ESMTPS id A10CA2E02D6 for ; Mon, 30 Mar 2020 22:25:03 +0200 (CEST) Date: Mon, 30 Mar 2020 20:25:02 +0000 From: Michael =?utf-8?B?S2rDtnJsaW5n?= Message-ID: References: <566872408.1293730.1585598590645.ref@mail.yahoo.com> <566872408.1293730.1585598590645@mail.yahoo.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit In-Reply-To: <566872408.1293730.1585598590645@mail.yahoo.com> Subject: Re: [dm-crypt] bits vs bytes List-Id: List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , To: dm-crypt@saout.de On 30 Mar 2020 20:03 +0000, from moreejt@yahoo.com (JT Morée): > When I run luksDump i see that multiple locations give sizes in > 'bits'.  Is that correct?   Normally, we operate in 8 bit => bytes.  > If I read this correctly then > > 2: luks2 (unbound) >   Key:        512 bits = 64 bytes Cryptographic key sizes, hash lengths, block sizes, and similar quantities are commonly stated in bits, not bytes, especially for algorithms typically implemented on digital, binary computers (in either hardware or software). There's likely a variety of reasons for this; some historical, some mathematical. Certainly you can convert the number of bits to a number of bytes by dividing by 8 _if_ you prefer that for some reason, but a _lot_ more people will know what you mean if you say, for example, "128-bit AES" than "16-byte AES". (Never mind "AES-128" versus "AES-16", the latter of which seems likely to just be confusing.) So for communicating with others, I _really_ suggest using the more common form. -- Michael Kjörling • https://michael.kjorling.se • michael@kjorling.se “Remember when, on the Internet, nobody cared that you were a dog?”