Given a set of numbers is it possible for regex to find subsets of numbers that occur of length N more than once, preferably on a loop variable N. I currently have something that finds more than single occurrences, but this returns too much noise. I want it to find sets of length N in a loop, that decrements N from large sets to small.
The seemingly arbitrary sequence of numbers is a byte array of characters converted to a string of numbers, the sets I want to catch are the possible keys for an XOR encoded file.
Given the encoded text is sufficiently long, there may be a time when N spaces are xor'd with a key of length N, which reproduces the key in roughly plaintext. I have tested this, for example:
" " ^ "ThisIsTheKey" produces roughly "tHISiStHEkEY"
Current regex(java engine):
String regex = "(\\d+)\\1";
Pattern patt = Pattern.compile(regex);
Matcher matcher = patt.matcher(sToDecode);
while (matcher.find())
{
System.out.println("Repeated substring: " + matcher.group(1));
} Given: 737568797372696810068791021116868686873696868657376791001117268681067368686868736865736810169686872687972686568689876796869726874749911010194687265796810111086696511099688368688369868984896876708580849586987885681111109978697865767372737668676968796870797899110101110107736868726569697978736868657394707570661101011101079878991101101026968736879686572100736868766968736879686572100736867681107968657210073686876696873687968657210073686876696873687968101110107981007368687669687368796865721007368687669681006872689968796865721007368687669687368796865721007368687673666910772100736868766968736879686572100736868766810011073687968657210073686876696873687767696868711109911010168657210073686876696873687968657210073686876696873687968657210073681111107368796865721007368687669687368796865721007368687669687299110101686572100736868766968736879686572100681056899687968657210073686876696873687968657210073686876696873687310111010772100736868766968736879686572100736868766968737368102111110736879686572100...
This will find the following reoccuring subsets:
...
Repeated substring: 736879686572100736868766968
Repeated substring: 1
Repeated substring: 0
Repeated substring: 68
Repeated substring: 6
Repeated substring: 0
Repeated substring: 68
Repeated substring: 686572100736868766968736879
Repeated substring: 1
Repeated substring: 657210073686876696873687968
...
Please let me if regex can be changed so it will only return:
Repeated substring: 736879686572100736868766968
Repeated substring: 686572100736868766968736879
Repeated substring: 657210073686876696873687968
Using + will match from one to many numbers, that's why you get all theses short substrings. If you want to add a constraint on the length, just change it for {n,m} where 0<=n<m (one of it can be blank).
To get the groups of 3 and more repeating numbers, use:
(\d{3,})\1