Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!cmcl2!brl-adm!umd5!ames!hao!noao!mcdsun!sunburn!gtx!al
From: al@gtx.com (0732)
Newsgroups: sci.crypt
Subject: Re: One time pads?
Message-ID: <575@gtx.com>
Date: 19 Feb 88 23:27:16 GMT
References: <4209@june.cs.washington.edu> <1988Feb15.151522.5094@utzoo.uucp>
Reply-To: al@gtx.UUCP (Al Filipski)
Organization: GTX Corporation, Phoenix
Lines: 18


It seems to me that potential one-time pads are broadcast every day in
the form of newspapers, magazines, sports scores, lottery numbers,
etc.  All you need to do is agree on some algorithm for using them.
You can either xor strings from these sources with your message, or
reseed a random number generator based on the broadcast data and
generate your pad from that.  All you need is a source of bits (more
random the better) commonly observable by sender and recipient.  Is
broadcast data of this kind often used to help with key distribution?
I don't often hear about this technique, but it seems obvious,
certainly better than toting actual physical pads around.



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