RC4 using a key without nonce's or IV's

Asked May 26 '16 at 12:05

Active May 26 '16 at 12:58

Viewed 237 times

I'm researching RC4 and I am trying to recreate a condition where RC4 is crackable. However I can't quite find the article/resource I need to find the weakness for an implementation like this (python):

from Crypto.Cipher import ARC4
f = open('key.txt')
key = f.readline().strip()

o = open('output.txt','w')
f = open('input.txt')
for line in f:
    cipher = ARC4.new(key)
    print >>o, cipher.encrypt(line).encode('hex')

I know the weakness is that the same key is used to encrypt the traffic, however I need a hint as to how this might impact the security of the algorithm.

edited May 26 '16 at 12:58

e-sushi

17,891
12
83
229

asked May 26 '16 at 12:05

Don

2

Hint: what would you get if you xor two of the ciphertexts together? – poncho May 26 '16 at 12:24
The key stream? – Don May 26 '16 at 12:34
2

Potentially interesting as it contains links to papers and infos related to your Q as well as some python files to play with in the “Resources” section $\rightarrow$ rc4nomore.com – e-sushi May 26 '16 at 12:51
1

@Don, no, you get the xor of the two plaintexts. – mikeazo May 26 '16 at 13:01

RC4 using a key without nonce's or IV's

0 Answers0