Reversing an XOR encryption/decryption function

Roberto

10/9/23, 10:37 PM

I have a help recommended high-school project that I'm stuck with. To basically explain the problem: I have an encryption function that is used as the decryption function and I need to reverse it to make an encryption function.

I tried many things but I can't find the proper result. The best I came with was to encrypt 1 byte on 2 properly.

Here is the core of the function (the rest is variables initialization:

// Decrypt
for (i = 0; i < 256; i++) {
    decrypted_msg[i] = (xor_key[i % 128] - i) ^ (encrypted_msg[i] - i / 16 - 12);
}

So can someone explain me (like I'm five) how to reverse this code to produce the encryption?

Thank you by advance for help.

136

1 + 0

xor

symmetric

Score:1

Crypto

kelalaka

10/9/23, 11:10 PM

What about this?

decrypted_msg[i] = (xor_key[i % 128] - i) ^ (encrypted_msg[i] - i / 16 - 12);

convert this into equations

\begin{align} p[i] &= (\phantom{(}key[i \bmod 128]-i) \oplus (c[i] - i/16 -12)\\ c[i] - i/16 -12 &= (\phantom{(}key[i \bmod 128]-i) \oplus p[i]\\ c[i] - i/16 &= \left( (key[i \bmod 128]-i) \oplus p[i] \right) +12\\ c[i] &= \left( (key[i \bmod 128]-i) \oplus p[i] \right) +12 +i/16 \end{align}

+ 5

Roberto

10/9/23, 11:33 PM

Thanks a lot, it worked flawlessly. And big thank for the equations!

kelalaka

10/9/23, 11:42 PM

You can edit my answer and take the $\LaTeX$ code, too. What kind of project is this on what kind of school?

Roberto

10/9/23, 11:53 PM

I'm in normal highschool in France, it's a project about reversing communication protocol at my school's computer club.

kelalaka

10/9/23, 11:55 PM

I hope getting help was not prohibited

Roberto

10/10/23, 12:00 AM

No, don't worry. It's even recommended. :)

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: Reversing an XOR encryption/decryption function

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