# Tag Info

3

Most advantages have to do with the fact that it includes authentication. For example: An authenticated encryption primitive is easier to use correctly. Only a single primitive that has to be secure. One pass over the data to both encrypt and authenticate may be faster. (Bernstein's rebuttal is that a separate MAC allows faster detection of forgeries, ...

1

It is incorrect that Wikipedia does not mention other stream ciphers than the synchronous ones. It also mentions asynchronous ones (that is, where the keystream depends on the previous ciphertexts -- and thus, the previous plaintext) together with associated advantages: this allows re-synchronisation of the sending and receiving end. Additionally, an ...

0

It is my understanding that a pre-agreed astronomical noise source with a protocol presenting a few sync bytes would do the job. Nobody records enough astronomical noise with telescopes to have a good chance of having recording your source. However: if somebody happened to record it that day, you're sunk.

6

Well, one way to look at this is to notice that, if the feedback polynomial is prime, then the result of starting with state $E$, and then stepping the LFSR forward $N$ steps is the value $2^N \cdot E$, where we do the computation in $GF(2^K)$, using the polynomial representation (with the feedback polynomial being the polynomial). In addition, I believe ...

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