How can I decrypt a message that was encrypted with a one-time
pad? Would I need to get that pad, and then reverse the process?
I'm confused here. One-Time Pad is unbreakable, assuming the pad
is perfectly random, kept secret, used only once, and no
plaintext is known. This is due to the properties of the
exclusive-or (xor) operation. Here's its truth table: Note that
it introduces no bit-skew - the number of 0s and 1s in the
inputs are equal to the number of 0s and 1s in the output, i.e.
two of each. Furthermore, if you know only one element from a
row, you cannot predict the values of the other two, since they
are equally probable. For example, let's say we know that X is
0. There's an equal probability that A = 0 and B = 0, or A = 1
and B = 1. Now let's say we know that X is 1. There's an equal
probability that A = 0 and B = 1, or A = 1 and B = 0. It's
impossible to predict. So, if you only know one element, you
cannot possibly determine any information about A or B. The next
interesting property is that i