Camouflage that message !

[Ben Laurie]

Terry Boon wrote:
> 
> On Mon, Sep 24, 2001 at 11:32:04PM +0100, George Foot wrote:
> 
> > The first step is to prepare a very large file containing a billion or more
> > random bytes.  Identical copies of this file can be made available  to
> > anybody interested at little cost -- for example by  distributing the file
> > on a CD or a DVD disc.  Call this large file a PAD.
> >
> > It is a simple matter to select Pointers to indicate a number, for
> > example thirteen, different locations in the Pad and from each of these
> > locations to derive a string of random bytes which can then  be
> > EORed together to form a new string.  This new string becomes the
> > camouflage string for a particular message and is unique to that
> > message.
> 
> This *may* have similarities to a cipher proposed by Maurer, in
> 
>   Ueli M. Maurer, "A Provably-Secure Strongly-Randomized Cipher,"
>   Advances in Cryptology -- Eurocrypt '90 Proceedings,
>   Springer-Verlag, 1990, pp. 361--373
> 
> My conjecture is based on remarks in Bruce Schneier's October 1998
> review of the TriStrata system
> (http://www.counterpane.com/tristrata.html).  Unfortunately, I don't
> have access to Maurer's work to check the relationship between the
> ciphers myself.

I have - and you are right, they are identical, AFAICS.

Cheers,

Ben.

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