Re: Brute Force attack on VMS

[mskala@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

On Mon, 28 Aug 2000, Anders, Claus wrote:
> has someone tried a brute force attack on the VMS ?
> If not, why ? And if, got any results ?
> (brute force-> try every possible combination of char to vms-char ordered or
> random chosen and the looking up the outcome (for example the 1st page)

As well as being prohibitive in terms of time (there are a *lot* of
possible permutations of an alphabet), this approach assumes that the VMS
*is* a simple letter-for-letter substitution cipher.  We have strong
theoretical reasons to believe that it isn't - the statistical properties
of the text are in some ways quite different from those of text in a known
language encrypted by simple substitution.  If the VMS were a simple
substitution cipher, there would be much easier ways to break it than
brute-force anyway.

Matthew Skala
mskala@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx              I'm recording the boycott industry!
http://www.islandnet.com/~mskala/