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The case of the 9 bit AES key

https://v12.sh/blog/the-case-of-the-9bit-aes-key
99ledoge | | 49 | HN
tptacek | parent | next
"MuPDF versions before 1.28.5 use an implementation of the drand48 family" yeah, ok, so they're basically not doing real encryption. The number of bits in the key space isn't the real story; the keys simply aren't cryptographically random.
NelsonMinar | parent | next
What is wrong with software engineers that we keep making really stupid basic mistakes like this? Sometimes I think programming should require licensing and regular testing.
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LeoPanthera | parent | next
This is partly why I'm not too worried about AI slopcode.

The human bar is not that high.

I would much rather have rigorous testing than a filter based on the origin of the code.

rsalus | parent | next
I think it's safe to assume anything associated with PDFs is radioactive.
HackerThemAll | parent
Those are not the "software engineers" but coders, those who like to say that the university degree doesn't add anything in programming.
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jburgess777 | parent | next
Does the DMCA still make it illegal to access encrypted content no matter how easy it is to discover the key? https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/1201

Would the new LLM model owners like to strike this down, or use it to demonstrate how dangerous unrestricted models can be?

ubutler | parent | next
Rule #1 of rolling your own RNG: don’t.

Rule #2? Please don’t.

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j16sdiz | parent
That's why we use the system RNG !
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paulpauper | parent | next
it's like the weak hardware wallet entropy bug
esafak | parent | next
I assume this is the fruit of AI-driven decompilation? Nice work.
jeffbee | parent
You'd have to be completely off your rocker to use a PDF tool written in C anyway.
advisedwang | parent | next
very VERY few people judge tools like this by the language used to develop them.
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cowlevel | parent | next
What are the alternatives?
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lirolero | parent
Genuine question, since I'm not very knowledgeable about this: why is using C for a PDF tool such a bad idea?
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