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The following archive was created by hippie-mail 7.98617-22 on Sat Apr 10 1999 - 01:15:23
steven.soroka@mts.mb.ca
Fri, 30 Oct 1998 10:05:04 -0600
I think you're mistaken.. 64! is 1*2*3*4*5*6*7*8...etc...*62*63*64....
which is 1.268869321859 * 10^89..
the correct number of possible combinations should be 64^256 or... 2^262,
no?
Taking this a step further. Say you had a security system where all
messages
were exactly some fixed number of bytes, say 64 bytes each. Now the number
of possible combinations is 64!, which is somewhere around 2^296. This
means
that if you could represent each unique shuffle pattern with a unique
number
you would have a cryptosystem with keys of 296 bits each. However if the
messages are structured or subject to frequency analysis then I suspect
that
the strength would be reduced quite a bit. In that case it's probably
better
to use it to construct a message length random key to XOR against the clear
text. One could build practical variants that could be useful in such
a restricted message size environment (say a payment system with small
monetary messages).
Anyway it's a fun mental doodle if nothing else. Good night!
- Alex
--Alex Alten
Alten@Home.Com Alten@TriStrata.Com
P.O. Box 11406 Pleasanton, CA 94588 USA (925) 417-0159
The following archive was created by hippie-mail 7.98617-22 on Sat Apr 10 1999 - 01:15:23