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. These have been written, tested and pounded on by a lot of people, probably smarter than I am. :)