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How would one hack a file produced by such an algorithm without knowing it in advance?Įdit: Everybody, please don't try to convince me of how hard it is to keep an algorithm secret. (Or any other such mathematical manipulation, this is just an example.) Do a bitwise-negative on any byte whose serial number in the file has a repeated digit sum which is prime.
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Use a weak well-known encryption algorithm on the original data, then:.It would be a seemingly meaningless string of characters.įor example, say that the home-brew algorithm is like this:
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How would I crack it? I wouldn't even know where to begin. It makes sense to me that a home-brew algorithm is a very bad idea, but there's one thing I'm not understanding.Īssume I'm an attacker, and I am faced with an weak-but-unknown encryption algorithm developed by "Dave". (Actually hashing algorithm rather than encryption, but my question applies to both.) It shows a weak home-brew algorithm developed by "Dave", and the answers discuss why this is a bad idea. Is my developer's home-brew password security right or wrong, and why?
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