Cryptography Questions
A stream cipher is a type of encryption algorithm that encrypts data one bit or one byte at a time. It operates by generating a keystream, which is a sequence of random or pseudo-random bits, and then combining this keystream with the plaintext using a bitwise XOR operation. The resulting ciphertext is then transmitted or stored. Stream ciphers are typically used for real-time communication or for encrypting large amounts of data, as they can encrypt and decrypt data in a continuous stream without the need for padding or block sizes.