Tool to decrypt/encrypt with XOR (eXclusive OR), a moder cryptographic method that consists in encrypting a binary message with a repeated key using a XOR multiplication.
XOR Cipher - dCode
Tag(s) : Modern Cryptography
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XOR Cipher
XOR Decoder
XOR Calculator
Answers to Questions (FAQ)
What is the XOR cipher? (Definition)
XOR Encryption uses the XOR operator (Exclusive Or, symbol: ⊕) with the plain text and the key as operand (that should be binary encoded).
How to encrypt using XOR cipher?
XOR is applied on binary data, a conversion (ASCII or Unicode) must be carried out on a non-binary text.
Example: The plain message is 1001 and the key is 10
Take the first bit (0 or 1) of the plain text and the first bit of the key and multiply then using XOR operation to get the ciphered bit.
Example: 1 ⊕ 1 = 0
The operation is repeated with the second bit of the plaintext and the second bit of the key. At the end of the key, loop back to the first bit.
Example:
| Plain message |
| 1001 |
| Key (repeated) |
| 1010 |
| Encrypted message |
| 0011 |
How to decrypt XOR cipher?
XOR Decryption is identical to encryption because the XOR operation is symmetrical (reverse XOR = XOR).
Example: 1001 ⊕ 1010 = 0011 and 0011 ⊕ 1010 = 1001
How to convert a text into binary?
dCode uses the ASCII table encoding which associates with characters (including the letters of the alphabet) a number between 0 and 128, which is then converted to base 2 (binary). It is possible to use other methods to get binary encoded text.
What is the truth table for XOR?
The truth table of the 2-parameter XOR logic function is:
| A | B | A xor B |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 1 | 1 | 0 |
How to recognize XOR ciphertext?
A xored message (XOR encrypted message) has no particularities, this makes it hard to detect.
It can be presented under binary form but also as ascii text.
Data in the form of a stream is well suited to XOR encoding.
How to decipher XOR without the key?
Xor decryption without knowing the key is hard. It is possible to find all or a part of the key by knowing a part of the plain text. Else, there are no practical methods other than trying all the keys.
What are the variants of the XOR cipher?
XOR is compatible with the principle of autoclave cipher.
Source code
dCode retains ownership of the online "XOR Cipher" source code. Except explicit open source licence (indicated CC / Creative Commons / free), the "XOR Cipher" algorithm, the applet or snippet (converter, solver, encryption / decryption, encoding / decoding, ciphering / deciphering, translator), or the "XOR Cipher" functions (calculate, convert, solve, decrypt / encrypt, decipher / cipher, decode / encode, translate) written in any informatic language (Python, Java, PHP, C#, Javascript, Matlab, etc.) and all data download, script, copy-paste, or API access for "XOR Cipher" are not public, same for offline use on PC, tablet, iPhone or Android ! Remainder : dCode is free to use.
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NB: for encrypted messages, test our automatic cipher identifier!
Questions / Comments
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