3 ms·

An episode of Computerphile attempted to answer the question - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzWB5jL5RX0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzWB5jL5RX0. TL;DW:

• DSMan195276 3y ago
  I'm not sure I'd count that as brute-force because his method can't decrypt every possible message. He's using a statistical test to determine whether a given configuration is better or worse and then uses that to narrow down the search space, but he clarifies it's not generic - it can't decrypt all possible messages (ones which trip up his tests) and also requires a minimum message length for the statistical tests to be effective. It's still extremely cool, don't get me wrong, but I don't think it's really what OPs asking. Given what's mentioned in the video (~12:50) and what some other commenters have mentioned I get the impression an actual brute-force is not really practical.
  • remus 3y ago
    Interesting stuff. I guess it gets in to what counts as a a brute force, as most of the brute force attacks I've seen (e.g. password cracking) lean pretty heavily on clever maths and statistical hacks to reduce the search space as much as possible.
    • DSMan195276 3y ago
      That's fair, there's probably more gray area in the definition than I suggested. I think the difference to me is that this is exploiting a weakness in the encryption itself rather than just guessing what the likely combination is. For password cracking, you're typically not exploiting the encryption but rather what passwords are more likely to be used than others.