One-Time Pad for OS X

[jamesadrian]

I have not found a one-time pad encryption program for OS X. Any leads would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your help.

James Adrian
jim@futurebeacon.com

 

[Senor Cuete]

It would be rather trivial to write one with code something like this:

#define possibleNumCharsToSub someNumber
#define sizofPad anInteger

while(numInts < anInteger){
    srand(clock());
    int randomNumber = rand();
    randomNumber /= someNumber;
    saveNumberToPad(randomNumber);
}

One time pads are unbreakable but very inconvenient for a number of reasons like the fact that you have to be sure to get the pad to the recipient without it being read.

Be sure to seed the random number generator with something like clock() or it will produce the same series of numbers every time.

Public / private key encription schemes like RSA are very secure if you use a big key and convenient as well. There have been reports that mathematicians have developed much better methods to crack the keys in recent years. Do you want to protect your data from your little sister or the NSA? This could influence your choices. Tripple DES is good as well.

I recommend: Applied Cryptography - http://www.amazon.com/Applied-Cryptography-Protocols-Algorithms-Source/dp/0471117099

 

[jamesadrian]

OTP for OS X

Senor Cuete,

Thank you for your message.

When I first started to look for a one-time pad encryption program I expected to find one for each of the three popular operating systems but I didn't find any. I wonder why.

Thank you for your help.

James Adrian
jim@futurebeacon.com
http://www.futurebeacon.com/

 

[Mackilroy]

Because even for the government one-time pad encryption is painfully slow, and the average citizen of any country doesn't need that level of encryption. I'm curious, why do you want it?

 

[Senor Cuete]

Because even for the government one-time pad encryption is painfully slow, and the average citizen of any country doesn't need that level of encryption. I'm curious, why do you want it?

I don't think that they would be slow because you would proceed directly to substitution. I think that they're not used much because of the possibility of someone accessing the pad and because of the convenience of public-private key algorithms, for example they allow you to authenticate the sender.