Can Shor's algorithm be used for encryption, more specifically WEP encryption?
+2
A:
It is hard to understand what you mean here. Shor's algorithm is a quantum algorithm designed to factor integers. With some twicking of the main idea you can make it break other crypto-sytems; however, how are you planing to build a crypto-system ? On the other hand, Quantum-crypto sits on much more solid grounds then quantum computation (i.e. we may actually see quantum crypto-systems in our lifetime).
David Lehavi
2009-01-19 18:23:30
+2
A:
WEP is based on RC4 which is a stream cypher. Shor's algorithm, as noted by David, factors integers. Some encryption methods involve the factoring of very large numbers into very large primes, but stream cyphers are not among that class. So Shor's algorithm would not help when attacking a WEP network.
Autoplectic
2009-01-19 19:07:44