One time pads, Next question?

AaronH4321 at aol.com AaronH4321 at aol.com
Sat Jan 18 14:38:05 PST 1997


Okay, with the intel I have gotten from the responses let me modify and
clarify. 

So, I now know that you can't use a PRNG to create a OTP. If I did have a RNG
that could create a "cryptographically" random, million character OTP and I
physically loaded the data onto each computer I wanted to communicate
with(e.i. group of laptops all loaded at the same location, same time), how
cryptographically secure would the data be. I know that physical security
would be a nessescary to the system. 

If I add some type of error checking to make sure someone that knows the
plaintext doesn't modify specific characters, an attacker knows what the
message is (e.g. "Send $10 to Bob") the message can be altered (to "Send $99
to Bob") even though it is encrypted. 

So, lets recap. If the keyig material is kept secure, and if the OTP is
cryptographically random, and if error checking is implemented then would
this be considered a secure(however encumbering it may be) system. 

Aaron.....






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