Tuesday, March 6, 2012

RSA token patterns

So, my work requires that if you log into the network from home to use one of those RSA token cards with 6 digits that change every 30 seconds.

However, it seems that almost every number that comes up, there's a pattern.  Like repeated digits, or even multiple repeated digits, or the first 3 numbers being very close to the last 3 numbers.

So, I bring to you the probability of there being at least 2 duplicate digits for an n-digit number.

1- 0%
2 - 10%
3 - 30%
n - n!/(n-2)!2! * 10%

... okay I'm too lazy.  And I'm wrong too.  This formula counts a bunch of permutations repeated times, and I'm too lazy to figure out the right answer.  I first figured out it was wrong when 5 digits came out at 100%.  Oh well.

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