PMC Ciphers launches again a challenge to break a short key - this time for the new standards-based Polymorphic Medley Cipher and a key that is as short as 38 bit. The challenge will end on January 03, 2013. The task is to crack the passphrase of an encrypted PDF file which contains the hint for a geocache. The links to the PDF file, as well as to the C++ source code of the cipher, are readily available for free at pmc-ciphers.com. In case somebody is able to identify the correct key, handover of the prize will take place on January 03, 2013 at 17.00 CET at the coordinates where the geocache is located in Munich, Germany.
The Polymorphic Medley Cipher is a Polymorphic Cascade Cipher with a variable key size of 128 .. 1024 bit using the popular AES, Twofish, Serpent, Cast-256, RC6, SEED, Camellia and Anubis encryption functions in up to 16 million different cipher combinations.
"The password consists of up to six characters "a..z", "A..Z", but as well the following characters are equally possible: >, <, |, ,, (comma), ., -, _, #, ', +, ~, *, ^, °, !, ", §, $, %, &, /, (, ),= ,?, {, }, [, ]. There exist approximately 282 billion equally possible key combinations, which corresponds with 38 bit. A 38 bit key used to protect data with a standard cipher like AES can be broken within a few hours. In contrast to this, the open source and royalty-free Polymorphic Medley Cipher can very well protect data with comparably short keys, at least for a couple of weeks. In order to prove this, PMC Ciphers organizes public code breaking challenges with extremely short passwords from time to time. Everybody on this planet can potentially participate", says C.B. Roellgen from PMC Ciphers.
Later on January 03, 2013 will the password be published on the home page of PMC Ciphers (www.pmc-ciphers.com), so that everybody who is interested can easily decrypt the PDF file and check the key.
More information and can be found at:
http://www.pmc-ciphers.com
The Polymorphic Medley Cipher is a Polymorphic Cascade Cipher with a variable key size of 128 .. 1024 bit using the popular AES, Twofish, Serpent, Cast-256, RC6, SEED, Camellia and Anubis encryption functions in up to 16 million different cipher combinations.
"The password consists of up to six characters "a..z", "A..Z", but as well the following characters are equally possible: >, <, |, ,, (comma), ., -, _, #, ', +, ~, *, ^, °, !, ", §, $, %, &, /, (, ),= ,?, {, }, [, ]. There exist approximately 282 billion equally possible key combinations, which corresponds with 38 bit. A 38 bit key used to protect data with a standard cipher like AES can be broken within a few hours. In contrast to this, the open source and royalty-free Polymorphic Medley Cipher can very well protect data with comparably short keys, at least for a couple of weeks. In order to prove this, PMC Ciphers organizes public code breaking challenges with extremely short passwords from time to time. Everybody on this planet can potentially participate", says C.B. Roellgen from PMC Ciphers.
Later on January 03, 2013 will the password be published on the home page of PMC Ciphers (www.pmc-ciphers.com), so that everybody who is interested can easily decrypt the PDF file and check the key.
More information and can be found at:
http://www.pmc-ciphers.com
