21–30 of 62 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nonce is short for "number used only once"
A "nonce word" is a word that is created to be used once. For example, if we were surfing off the coast near the Kruger National Park, we might send this tweet: "We are on Surfari!" The wikipedia entry for Cryptographic nonce says: "It is similar in spirit to a nonce word, hence the name."
"The country's top codebreakers too seemed flummoxed until Sievey's son Stirling recalled how his dad would get the children to fill an outer row with random symbols, while Sievey would insert real code into the inner row." Is it really that hard to fool some of the worlds top code breakers, simply by including some random digits? So a code where every {x} symbol is random, and suddenly you've got an uncrackable code…
Every {x} could be cracked by normal methods if it was simply added as a rule. So let's assume something just barely more sophisticated and we use a nonrepeating function instead of a fixed {x}. For instance, maybe the nth digit of pi means the next n mod 3th digit is random. How would you even begin to crack this? So imagine "thecodeisx". The first digits of pi are 141592653. So we get a noise pattern of: 1, 1, 1, 2…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Every {x} could be cracked by normal methods if it was simply added as a rule. So let's assume something just barely more sophisticated and we use a nonrepeating function instead of a fixed {x}. For instance, maybe the nth digit of pi means the next n mod 3th digit is random. How would you even begin to crack this? So imagine "thecodeisx". The first digits of pi are 141592653. So we get a noise pattern of: 1, 1, 1, 2…
Does code cracking still work in the era of modern cryptography? I thought that cryptosystems like AES and others were essentially impossible to crack if implemented right. What role do codebreakers play these days?
With AES etc, though, building a system that uses them effectively is the core principle of modern security and crypto.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Every {x} could be cracked by normal methods if it was simply added as a rule. So let's assume something just barely more sophisticated and we use a nonrepeating function instead of a fixed {x}. For instance, maybe the nth digit of pi means the next n mod 3th digit is random. How would you even begin to crack this? So imagine "thecodeisx". The first digits of pi are 141592653. So we get a noise pattern of: 1, 1, 1, 2…
Does code cracking still work in the era of modern cryptography? I thought that cryptosystems like AES and others were essentially impossible to crack if implemented right. What role do codebreakers play these days?
A simple substitution cipher is easily broken by frequency analysis - find the most common letter in the ciphertext and it'll probably be E in the plaintext. Nothing so simple would work today, but we often see vulnerabilities in cryptosystems due to pseudorandom number generators with inadequate entropy. It's the same basic principle (exploiting a lack of randomness to identify patterns in the ciphertext), albeit with vastly more mathematical sophistication. The NSA allegedly took advantage of this principle to deliberately weaken cryptosystems by promoting an intentionally weak PRNG.
"GCHQ told Sullivan that Sidebottom "had a small but dedicated following" among its staff."
Couple of people do Sidebottom dialogues as an in-joke to the extent that it begins to annoy co-workers.
"[After random outer triangles explained] 'Right, we've cracked it during a light-hearted training exercise.'"
Took a couple of minutes as a starter in a session.
PS: I use a Playfair style grid to jumble up my pass phrases to try to make them less susceptible to rainbow table attack. Am I wasting my time?
A couple of quotes from OA with a personal 'translation' "GCHQ told Sullivan that Sidebottom "had a small but dedicated following" among its staff." Couple of people do Sidebottom dialogues as an in-joke to the extent that it begins to annoy co-workers. "[After random outer triangles explained] 'Right, we've cracked it during a light-hearted training exercise.'" Took a couple of minutes as a starter in a session. PS:…
You know you are, you really are.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Does code cracking still work in the era of modern cryptography? I thought that cryptosystems like AES and others were essentially impossible to crack if implemented right. What role do codebreakers play these days?
The very complex modern approaches to cryptanalysis still borrow from the oldest attacks. A simple substitution cipher is easily broken by frequency analysis - find the most common letter in the ciphertext and it'll probably be E in the plaintext. Nothing so simple would work today, but we often see vulnerabilities in cryptosystems due to pseudorandom number generators with inadequate entropy. It's the same basic pri…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is gibberish called nulls or nonces? I forget.
Nonce is short for "number used only once"
Nonce is from "then anes", meaning "the one".
The "-n" got smooshed into the latter word, to become "nonce", rather like "an ewt" became "newt".
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oh wow thanks for sharing that! I had never heard of frank but i definitely have heard of jon ronson from his research and look into psychopathy. oh and the men who stare at goats, of course. anyway i must now add yet another line to my ledger of things i really should be looking into
The movie Frank is a fictionalized version of the character (written by Ronson), and there was a documentary about the guy as well: http://www.beingfrankmovie.com/info.html I watched the movie and was shocked to learn the movie was based on a real life phenomena.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Every {x} could be cracked by normal methods if it was simply added as a rule. So let's assume something just barely more sophisticated and we use a nonrepeating function instead of a fixed {x}. For instance, maybe the nth digit of pi means the next n mod 3th digit is random. How would you even begin to crack this? So imagine "thecodeisx". The first digits of pi are 141592653. So we get a noise pattern of: 1, 1, 1, 2…
Does code cracking still work in the era of modern cryptography? I thought that cryptosystems like AES and others were essentially impossible to crack if implemented right. What role do codebreakers play these days?
I believe allied code cracking in WW2 was helped by one wireless operator habitually ending their transmission "Heil Hitler" or something.