final php versions of fwPack and fwUnpack

[Richard Gaskin]

Frank Leahy wrote:

> Many, many thanks to shaosean and Brian Yennie for providing php 
> versions of fwPack and fwUnpack.  I cleaned them up a bit, added some 
> error handling, and tested the final code.
> 
> I've put the final code up on my server at 
> http://photoalbum.backtalk.com/code_snippets/fwPack_fwUnpack.php.txt
> 
> Richard, maybe you'd like to add this code to your fwPack/fwUnpack stack?

Wow - it's a red-letter day for Franks:  I just had a post from a fella 
named Frank in my support forum who made a tutorial for my WebMerge product.

I have to admit being surprised by the interest fwPack/fwUnpack has 
gotten.  As a simple "secret decoder ring" I wrote it for a specific 
need  and it's been gratifying that others have found it useful as well.

As I mentioned in the article, I'm pretty ignorant on encryption, esp. 
compared to seasoned cryptohobbyists like Mark Brownell.  So here's a 
question I can't answer about my own code:

If one were to try to characterize the relative strength of the "MDX" 
algorithm used in fwPack/fwUnpack, what phrase would be appropriate?

For example, we hear about 128-bit encryption, but I couldn't find a 
primer dumbed-down enough to explain what that means in lay terms.

Also, how easy would it be to crack MDX?

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Media Corporation
  ___________________________________________________________
  Ambassador at FourthWorld.com       http://www.FourthWorld.com