How to XOR a byte output?

[alister]

On Wed, 13 Apr 2016 06:18:22 -0700, durgadevi1 wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> I have a doubt regarding a problem.
> 
No, you have a question doubt means you don't believe something
(sorry I know this is not an English language lesson)
 
> First, I am required to read a given file.
> 
> 
> The output from the file is given below:
> 
> b'$//W?\xc0\x829\xa2\xb9\x13\x8c\xd5{\'
> 
> 
> I used the type() to identify the class and its a byte class.
> 
correct  it is a string o bytes & bytes that do not have a dispalyable 
ASCI character are shown using the \x<hex> format
> I saw many \x and thought it might be hex.
> 
> 
> So, I used binascii.hexlify() and got the following output:
> b'242f2f573fc08239a2b9138cd57b'
> 
> Now, this output is being encrypted and I need to perform an XOR
> operation on it in order to retrieve a secret message.
> 
No you ned to perform the Xor operation on the original bytes hexifying 
the string will not help you (it will actual make the situation worse)

> But, I'm not sure how to code the XOR operation. How do I code that?

without completing your homework for you, the principle is

step through each byte in turn
perform the XOR function 
add the result to a new byte string.

if  you are using the correct xor value hopefully you will get a readable 
output.

> 
> Thank you.
> 
> PS: I'm not sure if I have done any mistake along the way. That's why I
> have mentioned all the steps that I've done. Let me know if I have done
> any step wrongly. :)

indeed this has been better written than most homework assistance 
requests posted here that simply want a solution, but mentioning it is 
homework would be better still.




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