Re: Cracking Strings from URLs
Rich <[email protected]>
| Newsgroups | comp.misc |
|---|---|
| Organization | A noiseless patient Spider |
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
Computer Nerd Kev <[email protected]> wrote: > Computer Nerd Kev <[email protected]> wrote: >> I've got long strings like this from URLs (percent-encoded >> characters have been decoded): >> >> SdADygkIiM8ED8ZK/ZfkxwbHEgOXnsgKzQcYtq2j3L1HN6OYvET8PwvO2gpCCv4Bp4vIGLwLFN3dDQABOjWT0gVI/EtBlNUIObwLFNnU90IK/gCs2QQzBzhEz8sNAAdBPpmM+T0KRgudx88HxzsFnpjGQs8PBp+fEAvQCgCZnsdKzQz+lpbIBPj7CQ== >> >> I believe they might be encrypted strings containing one or more >> known fields, probably including a known ten digit number >> (1409518286 in that case). They might also be hashes, but I think >> it's unlikely. > > I got a copy of the PHP code. Turns out it's a "transposition > cipher" which adds different numbers to the ASCII value of each > character in sequence. Also called the Ceasar cipher: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceasar_Cipher > Very simple, Yes, that it is, and very weak against attack. > but I still wonder what tools are available to brute-force that > without knowing what sort of encryption method has been used? Without working out which encryption algorithm, there are not a lot of tools (besides asking one of these new AI's to "try everything"). Brute force has a somewhat narrow definition in the cryptography community of trying all the possible keys until the correct key is found -- which has an unstated dependency of "for the known encryption algorithm used". So you can't "brute force", per the usual crypto meaning, until after you know (or have a good idea of) the algorithm used.