This is a set of programs to encrypt files using one-time-pad encryption. This is an old but theoretically impossible to easily break way of encryption. I came across this method in Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon.

It works by XOR-ing every byte in the cleartext message with a byte in the key. As long as every key is only used once, and the key is random, this is supposed to be unbreakable.

However, you need a secure way to exchange keys with the intended recipient. If a third party intercepts the key, it can read the messages.

N.B: These programs work, but the genpad program relies on the /dev/random device to generate random keys. So the quality of the key and therefore the safety of this encryption method depends on the randomness of the /dev/random device on your system. So I cannot guarantee that the generated keys are totally random. Therefore, if you need really good encryption, use something like ccrypt or GNU Privacy Guard. These have been written, tested and pounded on by a lot of people, probably smarter than I am. :)