In article <Xns9854D1BBCAC61one3personyahoocom@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
on3_person wrote:
> It seems like a basic question to me at least. When using any method of
> encryption and you're going to decrypt something, how does the
encryption
> method know that you've got the right password/key? Is there something
> stored within the file, that when you enter your key it says "yes, that
is
> correct"? If you're given an encrypted statement and told to decrypt
it,
> how do you know you've done it correctly unless you're told that it is
> correct(assuming it's not plain text and extremely visible)?
>
> Just a thought.
>
> Thanks for any enlightenment.
AFAIK, there is no way to be sure that your decryption is accurate, absent
any
checksum or hash of the original date, unless, as stated above, the
message is
in plaintext. Maybe not even then, if you don't know what the message is
_supposed_ to be. If a hash(MD5, SHA, etc.) of the original accompanies
the
encrypted message, then it's easy to verify if the decrypted version is
correct.
SJO
--
"I think, therefore I thwim."
R. Descartes
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