3 ms·
To pick a nit, if there is one type that can be legitimately called "extreme" encryption it would be one-time-pads that were generated from truly random sources
by DrPhish 9y ago
To pick a nit, if there is one type that can be legitimately called "extreme" encryption it would be one-time-pads that were generated from truly random sources and distributed out of band.
With other types of encryption the math works (to various degrees) towards making brute-force decryption so time consuming that either the message would be worthless once it is decrypted, or the time horizon is otherwise beyond what is feasible. However, what math gives, math can also take away. Advances in cryptanalysis algorithms or sideband attacks could expose the message at any given point in the future. There may even be known attacks by three-letter agencies or other adversaries.
However, with a one time pad, given that the pad was truly randomly generated, was not exposed during distribution and is destroyed on each side upon encryption/decryption, the plaintext can NEVER be known.
Without an attacker with a time machine, the procedure is 100% airtight.
- 1001101 9y agoExactly. As a thought experiment, it's fairly trivial to set up an OTP communications scheme - like doing one from scratch in less time than it takes to order a pizza. It's traditionally been low-bandwidth, but as storage shrinks, sneakernetting enough material for high bandwidth use becomes much simpler. I can only imagine that practical OTP will be the penultimate step in the crypto wars. As far as brute-force for E2E, logjam is a great example, but I'm guessing there's a new state of the art.