Python for Reverse Engineering

[Michael Fuhr]

Brad Tilley <rtilley at vt.edu> writes:

> A friend of mine wrote an algorithm that generates strings. He says that 
> it's impossible to figure out exactly how the algorithm works. That may 
> be true, but I think if I had enough sample strings that I could write a 
> program to identify patterns in the strings and then produce strings 
> with similar patterns. He disagrees with me. He gave me 100 strings to 
> analyze.

What input, if any, does the algorithm take?  What are the strings
used for?  Care to post the 100 strings so others can have a look?

> What else might I do to analyze these things? As it stands now, I can 
> generate an acceptable string on ever 100th attempt or so, but I'd like 
> to do better than this.

Reading about cryptanalysis might prove fruitful.  I suspect the
number of "impossible to figure out" algorithms is far less than
the number of algorithms whose developers initially made that claim.

-- 
Michael Fuhr
http://www.fuhr.org/~mfuhr/