Re: Algebra Question (from prev site) Friday, 12-Feb-99 13:48:34
You can solve this using logarithms, assuming you are not working in integers mod m say. If you are working modulo a number then you can use the theory of indices, although this is generally a harder problem (indices are basically integer logarithms in a modular system). The paper is basically saying that not all of the encrypted file is unknown. There are bits that are known (the famous twelve 'random' bytes). By essentially using this relationship you can partially solve the problem, which reduces the complexity of the overall problem. It means there are less possilities to try. Look at it this way - suppose I give you a problem to crack which requires a 32-bit number. Now if I told you the number was even it would reduce the number of possibilities... there you go.. Hope this helps Cronos Cronos |
PC Mentor's Thread (PC Mentor) (10-Feb-99 01:55:30) |