Cracking Encrypted Messages

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Q1). How would you approach the creation of a generalized program to decipher /break any encrypted message, independent of the technique used to create the cipher? What is your algorithm?
Answer: If the algorithm to decipher an encrypted message has to be independent of the technique used to create cipher, i could think of only brute force technique that attempts to try every key possible. However, this is not always feasible even with the computing powers that are available today. The success of brute force largely depends on the length of the key used for encryption. A longer key requires more computing time/power to and is exponentially more difficult to decipher the key. If n is the size of the key, the computer needs to check characters used to the power of key size combinations which means it could take million billion years or more depending on the size of key.
While DES, which uses 56 bit keys is relatively easier to crack compared to AES, which uses 126 bits symmetric keys and is still considered a strong encryption. The brute force attack typically checks all...

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