3 ms·
> Me: That sounds trivial to break; have you tried XOR? > Friend: I'll try that now. [Tries ONE value] It's just XORing each character of the password with 0xC
by asaph 8y ago
> Me: That sounds trivial to break; have you tried XOR?
> Friend: I'll try that now. [Tries ONE value] It's just XORing each character of the password with 0xC9!
Really? You kids just guessed it on the first try? I'm skeptical.
- pdkl95 8y agoIs is that hard to believe that two different trekkies (my friend, and possibly the author of the software) might have picked the same "random" constant that just happened to be the title of a TNG episode? It was very surprising at the time, but plausible given that people give VERY non-uniform-random values when asked to pick a random number. Meh, believe it or not, it's what happened. The real lessons are that XOR isn't a very secure hash function, and a lot of high school level "security" has often been little more than a cheap facade.
- a_c 8y agoOn hindsight, his friend might XOR a known password's hash with the clear text to uncover OxC9. But coming up the idea on the spot is pretty smart as well