Thread: good encryption/decryption algorithm

hi all,
I am currently looking for a small, secure, and reliable method of encrypting and decrypting strings. I have a link to one at codeproject, but some users have posted that it is not very reliable.

it will be used to encrypt/decrypt network traffic. it doesn't have to be un-crackable, just not TOO easily crackable. its not like it will be protecting super sensitive government data or anything, not protecting anything really important. reliability and usability is key here, I don't need some rock solid algorithm.

another thing that I am looking for, is the algorithm should not add anything to the encrypted string if possible. I have been fooling with a base64 algo which adds characters to the crypted string. this isn't really important, but if possible I would like to find one that keeps the string size to a minimum (or doesn't affect it at all).

if anyone has any recommendations or suggestions, I would be happy to hear them .

thankyou in advance!

Originally Posted by vinit

I know very simple & yet effective algorithm,
Just Ex-Or input with known string & result will be encrypted string, on reception again Ex-or with same string to get original string.
U can Ex-or it no. of times each time with seperate string for additional safty.

This is utter nonsense. First of all, xor is for all practical purposes trivial to break. Second, applying xor multiple times does hardly anything for security - if the lengths of two strings are X and Y, it makes the effective length of the string lcm(X, Y), but does so in a manner that is more open to attack than a single random key of length lcm(X, Y). Third, if the strings sent follow any regular format, that will show in the encryption, and key length won't matter that much anyway, if every message uses the same key.

Edit:

Originally Posted by Perspective

Check the "code snippits" section of this website, there is a simple XOR encryption example there.

No, don't!

Originally Posted by vinit

Well
was really unnecessary.Im not master of all here,that was my opinion.

That was not unnecessary, and your statement being your opinion is no excuse for your statement being incorrect, in fact, harmful.

thanks for all the replies!

I've read about AES before and about it being a secure algorithm. I have checked out the link you posted BobS0327 and AES ECB seems pretty easy and after some testing I think it is just what I am looking for.

I can't find cryptoAPI, but would be interested in taking a look at it, if it can save me time and size. do you have a link to where I can find cryptoAPI or a similar lib Brian and if so could you please post it?