unXOR

This tool will search through an XOR-encoded file (binary, text-file, whatever) and use known-plaintext attacks to deduce the original keystream. Works on keys half as long as the known-plaintext, in linear complexity.

Here's a demo of the Golang binary decrypting a plaintext file XORed with 0xABCDEF (3 bytes) and where our known-plaintext is leggings.

Usage (Golang)

This should work:

$ go get github.com/tomchop/unxor
$ $GOBIN/unxor -h
Usage of /Users/tomchop/code/go/bin/unxor:
-f string
        Filename to decrypt
-g string
        Known plaintext (string)
-gh string
        Known plaintext (hex encoded)

Usage (Docker)

You need to map $PWD (or the directory where your file is) to the /data volume in Docker so that the container knows where to find your files. The decrypted file will be written in the same directory.

$ docker pull tomchop/unxor
$ docker run --rm -v $PWD:/data tomchop/unxor -h
Usage of /go/bin/unxor:
-f string
        Filename to decrypt
-g string
        Known plaintext (string)
-gh string
        Known plaintext (hex encoded)

Usage (Python)

Python sources are contained in the pyunxor directory.

$ cd pyunxor
$ python unxor.py
usage: unxor.py [-h] (-g GUESS | -k KEY) [-m {iterative,selective}] [-x]
                [-v {0,1,2}]
                [infile] [outfile]
unxor.py: error: one of the arguments -g/--guess -k/--key is required

Related Work

unXOR is included in Lenny Zeltser's REMnux, along with other great tools such as: